


Romancing the Black Ball (Gantz Isekai)

by SupaSoulja_X



Category: Gantz
Genre: F/M, Gantz Isekai, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-22
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:34:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 21
Words: 46,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21907540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SupaSoulja_X/pseuds/SupaSoulja_X
Summary: An American Chemistry scholar gets caught up in the fun of Gantz! Watch as he stumbles around galactic invasions, gang conflicts, vampire hunting and relationship drama.Some characters inspired by Black Lagoon, Jurmangand, Ghost in the Shell or Ego Proxy.
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer I don't own Gantz or any Media associated with it, Black Lagoon, Jormungand or any others. This project is for my and your entertainment.

I was on my way home and in an excellent mood. Our team, the Green Rockets had smashed the ever loving shit out of the guest team, the visiting Taisho Dragons. The crowd was cheering and many people were drinking beers and carrying on. Some people had even carried a few of my team mates around on their shoulders. They had tried to look for me, but I had seen it coming and dipped into the dugout once the game clock had hit the 2 minute mark. I had to hide in the dugout until the rowdies calmed down a bit and due to my being a American blending into the crowd out of uniform was out of the question. One of the oddest parts of the event was the large amount of fairly open drinking at a high school-college league game, as most of the people there weren't over 20.

I mean it was strange because the image I had of "proper" Japanese young people didn't match up to the realities. If one was to go by manga all of them were just as properly polite as can be and never cussed, drank, had premarital sex and were obsessed with nothing but getting good grades. The reality of the matter is that about 1/3 of the young people here were borderline drunk and 1/2 of the rest were at least buzzed. There were a few, in the back smoking what smelled like chronic and I'm sure there were a few shrooms available if one had a taste for them. The truth of the matter was that while many of them were obsessed with finding good employment and most Japanese valued open politeness; they could be as nasty in both the mean spirited and freakishly deviant sense of the world as anyone else.

"Yasu!?..Where is Yasu?. Did he run off again?" hollered Isaki Dombachi, our shortstop having just been released from the shoulders of the crowd. There were a few dirty finger prints on his uniform including around his posterior.

"I haven't seen Yasu kun since the last run. I'm sure he hasn't gone home, he said he would join us for a drink at Miko's. He's probably hiding until the mob disperses" replied Oda Nobehada our primary batter. We called call him Nobu san in reference to his supposed ancestor Oda Nobunaga the unifier of Japan (or at least one of the 3). He was one of my better if not best friend, who was unfortunately responsible for my nickname by association. See Yasuke was the first black samurai, as Oda Nobunaga had taken him off some Jesuits who had enslaved him. He fought in some battles for about 2 years before Nobunaga's betrayal and the ebony warriror had vanished into history.

"Doesn't he like the adoration of the crowd? Or is it he still scared of Japanese girls? He does know all the freaky cute ones will already have left with the real men. Does he want to stay a virgin?" followed Joseke Kimpachi, our right infielder and our team's supposed ladies man. In truth I'd rather not have my buns pinched by half drunk teen girls and the occasional forty year old man. I'd found out "its not freaky or improper if no one can see you do it" is the name of the game around these parts.

"In which case you might as well be in another province with how long you'll be waiting to lose your cherry, wont you? Yasu kun's mitt is here, with the game ball inside which means he is changing in the shower room". Good old Nobu, good for a laugh and covering my ass. It's not that I mind the occasional pat on the behind in the locker room or on the field. It’s the fact these fans take things a bit too far. I mean I understand that not many Black Americans or Black people in general are in Japan, but why did everyone want to touch me?

They knew it would offend me to do so to my face, but if I couldn’t see them because they are beneath me in crowd it suddenly became alright in their minds. It’s not even mostly women who have pinched my behind. As often as we do win I have learned a good routine to avoid the worst of it and I'll come out with the team and shake a few hands and maybe sign an autograph. Yes I'll sign autographs at a sub college level baseball game, because any Black American athlete that is playing in Japan must be famous and important right?. At least the locals have stopped asking me if I'm a basketball star, or gods forgive them gangster rapper.

Though to be fair under different circumstances and a less commercialist world I might be considered a minor celebrity, but not because I am a fairly good pitcher in pre- collegiate level baseball. I didn't even get a sports scholarship, though I probably could, I play baseball because I like it. Everyone seems to look at my 5.8 height and forget I finished high school at age 16 and got a damn near full scholarship to Princeton for chemistry. I was in Japan because I am somewhat of an Otaku and Japanophile and I lucked out in terms of US Japanese politics. See there was some big political scandal and a good way to "improve cross Atlantic" relations was to foster cultural exchange. In ancient times those dignitaries and their children were basically hostages, in these days it meant glorified working vacations.

I was especially lucky that I was black, yes affirmative action favors the prepared. They needed Americans pronto and quickly ran through a checklist of who would best suit the look they were going for. Apparently there were very few students of color who both excelled in chemistry and were interested in going to Japan and far fewer who had already graduate high school at 16. Being better than average at baseball and speaking/writing Japanese was a bonus. The best part of it was since I had already finished high school I wouldn't have to attend in Japan. Oh the Japanese were sneaky I would get an apartment coincidentally near 3 of their schools with the best chemistry departments and what amounted to free access to their labs and libraries.

I would also get a small stipend to live off and a work permit so I might gain additional funds. Such a permit was excellent for employment in the chemistry labs in said schools or in nearby law enforcement labs (yeah real subtle). It had been a hard sell to get my parents to sign off on letting me live by myself, however they knew how driven and responsible I was.

Not like it wasn't even the first time I had lived for a few months away from home, those would be the baseball or science camps I attended when I was younger. However, once that hurdle was leaped I was basically in what for me was paradise. I was being paid to play baseball, run lab experiments, read manga and play video games. Though I do occasionally work; unless I decide to be wasteful or greedy I could easily live off what I received from the government and occasionally my family and have enough left over to have fun.

Yes, it was a wonderful life at least so far. I emerged from hiding as I thought it was about time to join in with my friends as the mellowing sounds of the crowd outside our locker room indicated the threat to my dignity (and the soft skin around my posterior) was safe at least from anyone not on my team.

"So have our furry friends returned to their lairs?" I asked in a mock commentary in my best Steve Erwin voice. I'd notice for some reason He is really popular in Japan despite being dead for a few years.

"Yasu please don't disparage our lovely supporters in that way" Nobu mildly mock scolded. He was one of the first to basically tell me it came with the territory. Though he did not receive quite as many uninvited hands as I did.

"Well he isn't wrong about how they act when fresh, young succulent meat is present". Kinpachi deadpanned while rubbing his naked posterior, which actually did display a number of slightly feminine sized hand prints.

"I'm honestly surprised all of you came back to get changed with how the lionesses were prowling. (lionesses being our slang for said cougars and M.I.L.F's who seemed to be disproportionately present). I figured a few of you would have skipped off to score another home run". Came my sardonic quip. Which was a rather obvious euphemism for fornication.

"Hey the ladies can wait, till after we celebrate at Miko's, Sake is on me. By the way I gotta say that 3rd inning shut out was a masterpiece" said Konade Otsumaira our relief pitcher.

"Besides, Yasu we got their numbers. If you are nice I might share a few with you. I'll even give a few tips. Might be a proper mauling will help you finally loosen up and reach your peak performance". With that I gave him a snap with the towel aimed at the spot on his rump with the most marks.

"I wonder how many of those numbers are real, I mean after they saw who they were marking they likely remembered their husbands". Which was one reason the "lionesses" were considered a bit risky. One of our teammates had to jump out of a 2nd story window at a "love motel" because he got a bit too fond of her "mauling". Said husband fortunately felt sorry for him while noticing him hanging butt naked from the awning. He only snapped a few pictures and settled for the embarrassment factor. Yes this was an interesting culture.

"Anyhow. I'm off to get my better clothes and probably get a bite to eat. We are on for 8: 00 pm right?" Everyone nodded their heads and gave our teams familiar grunt/chant. I joined in and headed out the side entrance.

As I left the field I passed fans, and everyone was in good cheer. Fortunately, as the mosh pit moment was gone, they just slapped me high fives. In good nature I gave out fist bumps (and the obligatory "secret soul" fancy daps), a few autographs and I pretended not to notice that a few women have touched my bare arm. At least they are playing it off as a casual brush. I was almost at the end of the fire line and I hadn’t been pinched, what good luck. Nope spoke too soon, but the offenders are at least female this time and they only pinched my arm.

"Hello Marcus san, it’s nice to see you again. Congratulations on your 3rd inning shut down" said a pair of young women near simultaneously. Both of them were wearing our team jacket.

Said jacket covered semi shredded fairly tight tank tops and cut jeans which exposed their g strings and bras. They were somewhat flat chested, had a bit too much makeup on and wore that somewhat ridiculous super tan I've noticed. I would say they were somewhat closer to our teams standard age of 20, which some of our less classy teammates would define them as "jackals". Those are younger women who will "work" their way through a team and usually congregate in numbers. "Hyenas" are women of any age who deliberately went after specific players with the intention of serious relationships, usually be agreeing with or smiling in response to everything they said or did.

I faced each of them and pretended to be tempted at the sight before me, by roving my eyes across them before genuinely smiling. " Thanks for the compliment. It’s good to see you Isa san and Nika san as well". I gave each of them a brisk hug and a kiss on the cheek. I declined to date either of them, not because I felt disgusted by groupies or I thought they were ugly. I personally had nothing against them or premarital sex in general. But I reasoned that I should actually like any person I chose to sleep with. And yes I realize that idealism would probably fly out the window if I ran into some really hot woman. Of course as I'm not desperate and super models rarely come to sub collegiate league games, there's little chance of that happening. That was of course irrelevant, they had paid to watch me play and genuinely wished me well. If a hug and some kind words made them happy I'll gladly do so.

As I exited the stadium I checked my phone which I had just turned back on. Apparently there was some kind of shoot out that was in progress in the shopping district. Across the street from the stadium I noticed a car blaring loud music. At first I thought it was the usual delinquent wanna be thugs rolling around blaring Japanese hardcore rap. Of course such music was just about as "authentic" as the industry "music" I heard back in Harlem. Of course I was shocked by 2 things almost instantly. One was the music was in English, but it was the second that threw me for a loop. The flashy, somewhat tacky low rider that was hosting a soundtrack very similar to Snoop Dog was occupied by a group of 5 young black men dressed in stereotypical hood wear. Four were inside the car while one was walking back from Mr. Osha the noodle vendor.

Near the car was a group of 5 young women dressed like college students. Sizing them up I realized they were "rappers" or I should say "Industry musicians" on tour. Their car was decked out with speakers and the word Pantara was plastered over the car and some of their clothes. So they came to our game to advertise, pick up some age appropriate women and have a good time. I could respect that, and having decided they weren't a threat I made my way over to speak to the first new black people I had seen since I landed in Osaka 4 months ago. I had been in Japan about 7 months so far and figured I'd try out different places. I figured I would get the latest on what's going on in the states and give them a few pointers on meeting girls, especially avoiding jail bait (Japan doesn't fuck around with foreigners concerning drugs and minors).

What I was not expecting was the incident in town square to cause as much blowback as it did. One moment I was 12 feet from the tricked out Impala and about to yell what's up. The next minute I noticed a three car pile up as a mini truck failed to yield to a fleet of ems vehicles speeding by. Of course the Impala or the people near it wouldn't hear the screeching tires and with the driver as engrossed as he was with flirting he wouldn't be watching his rear view mirror. There wasn't much I could do for those in the car, but maybe I could help those out of it. The gentleman who was carrying the noodles saw the incoming disaster and pulled one of the young women back, while shouting. He was especially clear thinking I noted because he threw his phone at the window of the car, shocking his friends out of exchanging phone numbers. Unfortunately for them they went into shock after noticing the incoming careening vehicles, not that there was much they could do. Fortunately for the 2 women who were standing in front of the impala I turned laterally in my jump and collided with both of them thereby knocking them out of the way. Unfortunately I was not fast enough to clear the second inbound vehicle I did not see.

I remember a crushing force and small flight. I also remember a split second of the action around me. One of the brothers, the one with the Pantera shirt went right through the windshield. After that I remember my mind splintering. I was then looking at my self being transferred like in one those sci fi movies I liked watching. Only this was like watching a laser printer operate. I came into being one strip at a time unable to move. Around me were a bunch of Japanese people and few "foreigners" from other parts of Asia. I notice a tall young man of around my age, wearing what looked like a stylish leisure suit with a Where's Waldo shirt. The first thing he does is laugh for joy, like some Saturday morning cartoon villain who just defeated the hero for the first time ever. I then notice a pretty woman with a knitted 1950's flapper cap covering most of her face. I believed she might be a national youth supermodel whose name started with R. This was confirmed when a bunch of people present almost flashed mobbed her, naming her Rieka.

There was a ball in the center of the room and everyone seemed a bit scared, to be honest so was I. Then I notice the same transference happen to a few other people. Most were quiet and a few were chattering in Japanese or their own languages. I recognized 3 of the rappers, but I choose not to speak just yet. Then the too pretty tall dude in the suit said nothing but kept starring at the ball like it was somehow communicating with him mystically. I was about to ask questions, when another person transferred in. The first thing the newcomer did was yell "Izumi. Izumi you Bastard" like even his name was a curse, charge him and grab him by his collar. The man, Izumi didn’t seem worried and gave him what we in New York called a classic 2 piece combo. That is a gut punch and an uppercut.

This "two piece combo" apparently was enough for a KO and the smaller youth collapsed onto the floor in front of the ball. "Don't Get Involved", "So weak", and "Did that combo come with a fries and coke" are words muttered from the crowd. I admit I laughed at the last one, yes it’s mean but the joke was funny. Then the Ball lit up and started playing some cheesy 70's music I've heard a few times on tv. I noticed everyone is shocked including myself but Izumi's face hadn’t changed at all.


	2. Chapter 2

I had trouble understanding what the ball was displaying as I had to push a few people out of the way gently. Some people weren't actually interested in reading the glowing words but were speaking to each other. The words were ironically in English and were in that funny leet speak some of my wanna be Hacker friends knew. My mind already used to reading Kanji was not as flexible to flipping back and forth as some Native Japanese bilingual speakers. So it took me an extra second to translate and let it register.

"Welcome to Gantz Players".  
"Your lives have now ended".  
"How you use your new lives is entirely up to us".  
"Everyone's been so weak lately".  
"That's why I wanted to bring the strongest people here".

Defeat the  
Kape Alien  
Thick Headed  
Sweats a lot

Likes  
Lizards  
Birds  
Qoutes  
"This is my place. Don't Look Down on Me. If you want to leave then leave."

Once it has finished this the black ball opened. From its side came racks of strange looking guns and equipment. Said doors smacked a young man in the face, but did not seriously injure him. What appeared to be his guardian showed concern for his health and aided him. Frankly this scared the shit out of me. I scanned the room for reactions, even the big stoic looking Japanese guy who would remind you of Yojimbo from the Akira Kurisowa film was a bit spooked. The only person whose facial expression did not indicate surprise (aside from the unconscious kid on the floor) was Izumo. If anything his face emanated a strange combination of excitement and joy. What frightened me was that that kind of excitement seemed to remind me of the look I've seen on groupies at one of my games. Everyone broke off into the groups that they initially came with or of similar mindset and started chirping about what they thought was happening.

"This is bullshit" someone spoke in clear Japanese before muttering some harsh sounding words in what I think was Thai. It must have been one of the browner East Asians of which there were 3. They don't look alike and none of them have the body language of mates so I assumed they were just friends.

" I don't know what the rest of that was but I recognize the word for shit, and I know fucking bullshit when I smell it!" One of the brothers, the one wearing a Pantera woolen skullcap said. His other friend who was wearing blue Pantera jeans nodded and I saw him open his mouth. He had a full mouth of golden caps, the solid 1 piece kind that usually include vampire fangs. At least this brother had enough class to skip that part and enough sense to advertise his own brand across his bridgework; in diamond studs of course.

I noticed the tall, obsessive looking man pick up a box and enter a side room . He returned with what seemed to be an S and M black costume and head into a second room. It was then I decided to act.

"Excuse me Izumo dono, might I ask you what is the purpose of this situation and why you are wearing that costume?" I made sure to add the respectful form. He knew what was going on and therefore was someone I needed not to offend. That and he was more muscular than I was and already knocked out the first dude who cussed him out.

The man’s, a teenager on closer inspection, facial expression changed slightly as he appraised me. He paused a moment, as though deciding on whether or not to bother answering, then he smirked. "I will say this only once. Treat this situation like war, for you will have to protect your lives. You all died and came here. If you don't want to die again I suggest you read what Gantz says and pay close attention. I also advise you wear this suit and take as many weapons as you can" was what the tall, too good looking youth said. I think he might have spoken more if not for the interruption he received.

"I am not dead I'm alive and I know it, this is some kind of game. You can't pull the wool over my eyes!". This came from some yuppie seated near the ball. "Don't scare my son with that kind of talk" opined a woman clutching her child near her husband.

Izumo's face then changed suddenly as though he were a parent dealing with children or as god among ants. I'd seen similar looks in American schools on the kind of bullies that were vicious, on hard cases that prowled my neighborhood and on some police. "Suit yourselves. Gantz send me first" he spoke before heading to the doors.

I decided on taking a risk of his potentially violent nature and crossed over to within 2 arms lengths of Izumo and speaking in timber of voice only he could hear. "Again pardon my presumption Izumo dono, but can you give me any more practical information about this situation before you beam out? What does the suit do, why do we need it? How dangerous are these things we need to kill? How do those guns and equipment work?"

Izumo's amused tone returned as he beckoned me to follow him into the room he had changed in. If he were going to murder anyone at this point I figured it wouldn't be me, hell the kid who had grabbed him was still breathing after all. "Exactly why would I help you to get more points than me? Better why should I care how long you survive in this war game. Its every man for himself in the point race and only the best survive".

"Even the strongest recognize the value of teamwork and a team without information is useless. So please tell me what are points, what do they have to do with this place and how do you earn them?"

"Look, you seem smart for a foreigner so I'll answer 2 questions and give you 1 free piece of advice. The advice is stay away from my kills. As to the question make them quick and easy to answer because I'll be leaving soon. Damn it feels good to be back in the hunt".

I thought about it. I could ask if we were really dead or what was the point of all this. I could even ask about the rules of this hunt and points but if that other kid didn't wake up or was uncooperative I wouldn't be getting any answers at all. So I decided to get to the immediate needs type questions.

"clocks ticking" he smirked and I held my tongue at his pretentiousness (I'd learned pretty good self control. Years of dealing with crazies, desperate homeless, proud gangsters, stuck up school administrators, and arrogant police had long taught me how to school my face and emotions).

"Ok, what does the suit do and how do I use it?"

"Was that two questions?, (he smirks again) don't sweat it. It gives you super strength and speed. It also gives you protection against most attacks. Be careful though because it will fail if it takes too much damage and it can’t stop all attacks. As for how to use it, well It reacts to your thoughts" At this my facial control must have slipped because his smirk became less pleasant and a lot more menacing.

"Look I'm not saying I don't believe you" before I could finish his suit rippled and he grabbed me with one hand by my shoulder and lifted. I was suspended by my right arm! I am 5.8 and I weight about 189 pounds. No one could do that without strain. Well I was pissed at this point and not thinking rationally so I kicked Izumo in the balls with a mighty "Hiya!" as I learned in Shoju Gyru karate. I am a 2nd Dan in that style and I hold a few yellows in other forms of combat. I couldn't live the life I have and do less. I also refused to fear anyone and I was going to put this fool and his nonsense in their place. That other guy probably had better intel and a better disposition were thoughts running thorugh my mind. Well my foot connected and the resulting pain traveled up my nerves as it was like hitting concrete. My fist followed with a pin point strike on his eye, I figured that even if the suit was armored there was none on his eye and he would have to let me go. Well my knuckle snapped back hard enough to hit me and I was in a good deal of pain. I must have yelled because I could hear people outside making comments and the brothers were snickering.

At this Izumo said "have I made my point?" and released me on my ass. I made a whoof and "ow" sound as I rubbed my foot and hand. Nothing was broken but my middle finger on my left would be sore for a while. "Also nice idea going for my eye. You have another question make it another good one. I have faith in you". Ignoring the jibe I thought about it before answering.

"What's the most effective weapon for a beginner to take and how does it work?". Izumo laughed. "That is the smartest question any fucking noob ever asked me". At this point I was beyond pride and scared shitless. This shit was real, aliens were real and I was going to have to fight for my fucking life. That suit and what it could do was proof, it protected the parts of him that were not even covered. No human body armor could do that shit.

"I can’t say for sure what your best weapon will be, and I think you'll probably live past 1 mission. cause you'll be in a suit not in my way. Though I would avoid the pistol it’s too complicated for beginners to aim in close quarters. By this I mean if you let the enemy get that close you are dead, by all means take it but use the rifle from long distance. The first trigger is to set your target and the second is to fire the gun. The first trigger lets you have an X-ray effect, sometimes you can see a weakness".

With that he grabbed me again. "That's two questions answered. I'll give you some more free info. This is the longest I've spent taking to walking dead. If you wasted my time and die stupidly I might chose option 3 from the 100 point menu to kill you again. (he laughed). Don't be afraid to use the fools outside as bait, most of them wont be coming back, but whatever you do (he threw me into the wall, but not hard enough to do damage) don't fuck with my kills or I will bring you back again 2 times to make my point!"  
With that I saw him get printed to a new location.

I heard the rustling at the door and a few "Is that idiot dead?". "Which one, the guy who insulted the madman or the one who was kissing his ass?". "Don't you means sucking his dick?" (I knew by the timber of his voice that one was from one of the wankstas. Though I guess out of politeness and to not offend 4 of the biggest people in the room everyone was speaking in English). I took the 15 seconds I needed to get to my feet. On the floor I noticed the box that must have held his suit, written on it were the Kanji for Shion Izumi, nothing was broken and I wasn't bleeding. So I got up, exited the room and brushed the people around me aside. I noticed the kid was still out on the floor. I'd deal with him in a minute, but first things first. I walked to the rack and scrolled through the list of boxes and names. Lo and behold I saw Joralemon Marcus in plain English. Strange that it would choose to spell my name in English, even though I spoke and read pretty fluent Japanese. I saw 4 other English names and it clicked whoever did this knew who we were BEFORE it snatched us.

Anyhew I knew there was some kind of time limit as Shion had said send him first. I moved quickly and rushed into the hallway to change. I ignored the silly comments and fawning over Reika. I tried to put the funny suit on over my clothes. Then I remembered that Izumi had worn his suit under his clothes and that there was only one piece of clothing left behind by Shion, his underwear. I then danced out of my clothes, donned the suit, redressed and stuffed my underwear in my pocket. I then willed myself strong and attempted to stand on my hands. Despite years of martial arts training it was something I never quite mastered, but to my amazement I could not only handstand without strain, but walk on my hands without fatigue. I eventually did fall over after 8 steps walking forward and back, but that was due to my lack of balanc and surprise.

Now I had the advantage. The question was what to do about it, for that I would need more information. I knew that the suits were real, I knew that the weapons and equipment were also likely real, which meant the fighting dangerous and deadly creatures was also (I shuddered) very real. So now I needed to know what if anything I wanted to share. Only one person had that kind of information and he was still taking a nap. It was time to see about changing that.

I walked back into the common room to notice that one person had already been translated. No one seemed to comment about it and were carrying on either fawning over Rieka, making philosophical arguments about what was happening, complaining (the 4 wankstas) or sitting in silence ( the giant and two odd looking people, the older one with light red hair and the smaller one resembling a tomato).

I was on the clock so I asked. "Does anyone here have medical training or some form of smelling salt to wake this guy up?". "Why do you care young man?" said an older well dressed Japanese man. I replied in English in order to be polite "It seems like common decency to care about an injured person". " Yo, weren't you just so buddy buddy with homes that smacked his up?" Pantera Headgear spoke up "What did he dump you already?" one the Gals (the kind of girl who goes orange tan, it would seem I mistook her string of unintelligible curse words and skin tone for making her Thai. It’s not all that strange for certain classes to curse in other languages).

I took a deep breath and raised my voice a few octaves higher without increase my timber to avoid threatening anyone and starting a tosterone party. "It seems to me that Shion Izumi has been here before. He was the only person that was not surprised by the Gantz opening and he was happy to be here. He probably is not altogether upstairs and a mean son of bitch, but he knows what that thing is. So since I like living I wanted to know what he did. So like my parents taught me I asked nicely".

"That explain why your clothes are wrinkled, was Izumi kun too rough with you?". The words she used in Japanese alluded to Yaoi practices without subtlety. She and most of the Japanese laughed. The 2 spoiled girls giggled, though the rest including the family of 3 and the giant man were paying closer attention to what I was saying.

The older gentlemen followed up "And I take that Shion person transferred out of here already so you can’t get any more information from him?". "Yes and he is pretty much an asshole who doesn't want to share too much, as he thinks we will steal his kill and points from him. To him this is a game, but I believe this SHIT IS SERIOUS!"

The woman in the back took notice "Please control your language, I understand this is trying for all of us but my child does not need to be exposed to foul language". she then spoke to her husband in higher end Japanese that I couldn’t quite make out. She seemed to be the kind of woman that got her brothers and boyfriends into shit. Though the last words were clear.

"This foreigner is talking more nonsense and he is corrupting our child's mind with foul language please do something". At this I asked the older gentleman to help me take the young man into the rear room to splash some water on his face and try to rouse him. Before we made it to the door Reika, who was about tired of dealing with the Gals and other onlookers held it open.

As I entered it I said in clear Japanese "This foreigner and the most sensible persons here will attempt to get some clear answers that might just get you and your family home safely". Reika closed the door behind us.

I looked at the old man and spoke in Japanse "My name is Marcus Joralemon it is nice to meet a sensible man in this hour of madness and stupidity". I said my name in the standard last first format, attempting to appeal to his likely old fashioned sentiments.

"I am Yoshikazu Suzuki". I shook his hand.

"You already know I am Reika Shimohera". We each shook the hand of the other.

"Now all we need to know is who this gentleman is, we know he charged a man nearly twice his size with killing intent I could feel (I used the word dark hadou) from across the room, but the why is beyond me".

Suzuki looked at me "I could feel it from the next province young man, there is a story there".

We then took off the young man's coat. I then spoke to him a in a soothing but firm voice "Good sir wake up". The old man attempted to speak more words to no effect. Reika took off her hat and filled it with water. The old man splashed it on his face. It was cold and it did the trick.

He bolted up, yelling "Izumi you bastard" and attempted to punch me, which went about as well as my kicks did on Shion. Fortunately for him, he didn't have much force in that blow so he didn't break anything. However, he yelled ouche and some curses for about a 8 seconds. He then looked at each of us and we exchange names. His was Kei Kurono. From outside we could hear one of the Gals "Looks like they are giving the poor newcomer the same treatment" followed by some laughs. It sounded like there were fewer people outside.

"So young man did you get it out of your system? That other fellow Izumi isn't here any more. Could you tell us why you don't like him?" the old man stated and Rei nodded. "While that might be nice to know, what is important is what this game is about? What are its rules and how do we win it? Those are the important things to know."

Actually "what's important if for me to get a look at Gantz." With that I helped him get to his feet and he weighed practically nothing. When we got outside the only people still there were a pair of skinny looking guys, and the giant Japanse man.

Kurono walked up to Gantz which apparently was the ball and it told him he needed 15 points to stay alive. As the big man walked over he froze and began vanishing. "What's your name sir? I am Jerolemon Marcus" He replied "Daizaemon Kaze". As he said that I pulled what looked like a ps2 controller in my left pocket, a pistol on my other and a rifle over my shoulder. I also picked up the box with his name on it and walked to the door I saw Shion enter. In it were what looked like motorcycles. In the other Room Kurono ceased panicking and told everyone to grab box with their name on it. I placed the box in side one of the vehicles. Then I walked back in to the room and picked up each of the skinny guys with 2 fingers "The suits give you super strength, pick up the fucking box with your name on it and take one of everything for your self. If you can get more for the others do it.” I turned to Kei “ I take it anything we have on our persons comes with us?"

"Yes and I will explain more but we need to be ready to go." He turned around "There's another fucking room? Of course there's another fucking room”. He pocketed more equipment and walked into the room with the bikes. I could feel some of his fear leave him. "Ok everyone load up these bikes with everything that can fit on them including the suit boxes and then sit on them". "Do it or I will toss you around here like that fucker Shion did to me, to make the point This is not a fucking game" There were 4 bikes in the garage and there was enough room for just about every piece of equipment we would need including the boxes of suits.

Kurono looked a little less panicky "Care to explain what points are?" One of the skinny dudes and the boxes he was carrying began to vanish "Later, DONT leave the area or a bomb in your head will go off, don't move unless you must I will find you and explain. Put on the damn suits and if you have to shoot pull both triggers on all the gun. Don't fiddle with the controller. Everyone else get on your bikes".

As I walked toward my bike with my last load I noticed some hilts without blades. Pointing it away from myself I noticed it extended without a sound. Like the suit it responded mentally and retracted the same way

"This looks cool, it opens and closes like you control the suit. Do you know how to use one?" I offered it to him hilt first Kurono took it from me saying something bout a few months of Kendo. Thinking it wouldn't hurt I tosses a few onto what was some empty space on the bike. I didn't know how to sword fight, but I intended to learn and someone else might.

In the end it was me on one bike, Reika on another while Kurono and the old man shared the last. The last thing I said before I felt myself lock into place was "don't worry you'll get your points and because my name is a mouthful call me Marcus". I offered him a smile and he and the old man nodded.


	3. Chapter 3

I came back to reality in what looked like a park. Around me were about 4 other people I recognized from the room. Behind me was Reika and in front of me were the old man and Kei. Seated in Zen like tranquility was the giant Japanese dude.

"Alright you can head behind those bushes over there and change. We don't know when whatever bad things will go down and this suit can save your life." Kuronai says.

"I was there when Marcus san demonstrated it and you don't have to tell me twice, she took her box and left."

While Reika and the old man were changing Kei turned to me and said "I promised you answers and here they are. I'm in a rush for my life right now so I'll make this simple. We kill aliens and we get points. He then pulled out his controller. The yellow dots are the aliens the red are us. We have until this counter ends to get them all. You don't want to know what happens if we fail. If you leave the area marked off in white your head blows up. One more thing as long as you are alive at the end of the time any injury you have gets healed. That's it. I have to get my points"

In front of me there was the giant Kaiza. The giant spoke "I have a question. I should like to know why you are wearing that suit?". I muscled up and kicked in a 5 foot area of knee high stone wall. 

"Because this suit makes you stronger and less likely to die against what's coming. Also, if more people see you wearing it they likely will wear it too; meaning we have a greater chance of surviving". I went through the stack of boxed suits, weapons and tools that I had piled up near the 3 bikes.

"Ah here we are, yours" I handed it to him. "Looks a bit silly but if you see an alien we'd likely need them. I mean you are pretty strong, but they are probably stronger than a man and we need every" Before I can complete the sentence Kaiza had struck me four times with different strikes. He then suplexed me and tossed me into the wall. I wasn't hurt at all but I was surprised. 

"Very well I shall wear this suit, its logical whatever we face will be at least that powerful". 

At this point Reika and the Old man are dressed and heading out to help Kei. Each of them has a weapon and a scanner/controller. 

A few minutes later Reika comes back as Kei said it was too dangerous for her to help him.

Before she cut the corner she asked what I was going to do if I wasn't going to follow Kei either.

I informed her "Proselytizing. Feel free to ride with me or Yojimbo here" Kaiza looked at me with a raised eyebrow. 

"Just kidding, sheesh not a Kurasowa fan? We are collecting the lost lambs and getting them armed to the teeth".

Reika climbed in with me and I asked her to keep an eye on the map and try to get a feel for the distances. "For some reason its in a more obscure form of Kanji than I'm used to and I need to focus on driving." Its also a good idea to make sure everyone in a group feels useful. 

We came upon the first group of shocked survivors huddled near a Kiosk.

That's when I yelled like a madman and rammed a large steel light pole with my fist. Ordinarily when a man rams a light pole it's the man that bends. This time I dented in to the point it bent at a 79 degree angle. I didn't feel any pain, so I ramped it up a notch. My suit flexed and I grabbed the pole where it met the concrete and I ripped it from it base, cutting the connection it had with the electric grid. That area of the park became less well lit.

"If anyone present doubts that this is a real light pole let them come and try to pick it up" Having said that I lifted the pole in the center with one hand and twirled it around. The 4 industry musicians looks at me and walk directly to the pole and attempts to lift it. together they are able to pick up one end about 8 inches before dropping it. Another man walks up to the pole and attempts to move it.

"This shits is real isn't it". "No shit friend" I replied. At this point the people were panicking, namely because none of them thought to bring theirs.

"That is the power of these suits. I will explain more if you will kindly shut up and stop making gay jokes". I stomped on the floor creating cracks on the ground.

"These are real weapons as well" I then point my x pistol at the steal side of an information kiosk. The first trigger gives me an xray affect, so far so good on the intel. The second trigger doesn't do anything at first. About 2 seconds later the kiosk has a 4 foot segment missing and there is a muffled explosion.

"My name is Marcus you will call me Marcus sama and I will teach you what I know and keep you alive until the most knowledgeable one arrives. That man’s name is Kei Koruno, aka the man who we all saw knocked out by Izumi. No I don't know what is going on between the two of them. However. I would suggest that everyone avoid Izumi and not involve themselves in whatever he chooses. He is violent and wants to be left alone. Kei will find us shortly and give us a full debrief (always make yourself sound like you know what you are doing). When you hear my words you hear those of Kei Dono.

Behind me is Kaiza sama and Reika sama; they are my associates and you will listen to what either says as you will listen to the words of Suzuki, aka the old man. We are not trying to boss anyone around and won’t force you to obey. However, consider that Izumi and Kei dono are still alive after doing this before and that there are only 2 survivors. Do you believe that they were alone in that previous mission? Also consider that Kei dono has given me much more information than Izumi and did so freely and without threats. He will give us more when we meet him. Does everyone here want to live and get home safely?"

Most of them nod.

"Then you will march behind Reika sama's bike, find your suits and work out your weapons which we stacked and left for you a few hundred meters in the other direction. Please go now." I turned to Rieka.

"Set up a nice defensive position, preferably one that is in front of a wall or a glass building. Don't be afraid to rip up benches or kiosks to form a wall. Property damage is not something to think about. I think you are rich enough to replace anything destroyed and your life is very valuable to your nation. Shoot anything that isn't human coming your way." I turned to Kaiza sama "Does what I say make sense?".

"What about you?" Asked one of the scared yuppies "Me and Kaiza dono are picking up the stragglers before the yellow dots do. Reika will explain it. The sooner you are suited and armed the safer you will be".

I look at Kaiza who hoped on my bike and we head off to where some Yellow dots are converging with a few red.

I looked back noticing Rieka and talking to others from her bike and handing a middle aged gentleman a rifle. I had told her to pick the oldest family person she could find to ride shotgun with the rifle. It wasn't so much that I was looking for efficiency as I had no idea the kind of people we were dealing with and I would hate to have to kill some fools for stupidly trying a rape fantasy.

They were making a good pace and I could roughly see their group moving in the right direction. Now I could focus on our part. Kei chan was pretty worried about these "aliens" so I would have to assume that what he saw was the real deal. The four blips the larger group of survivors had described were a gal and a family of three and only the death of the other would ensure the survival of one group.

Reika's Group

"Are we there yet" whined one of the young yuppies. These people were pretty annoying; hitting on her like the reject hippie, making rude sexual comments about the young black man who didn't seem very gay at all (she had caught him sneaking looks at her chest), or just outright bitching about small things.

According to the scanner she was given by Marcus san she should be reaching the stockpile of their suits in the next 5 minutes. As they had taken every suit with them, they would have one for everyone. Kei san had told everyone that only the suit with your name on would work for you. It occurred to her that Marcus san could read Kanji pretty well and might have just given her the navigators job as busy work. Or he could have honestly intended for her to take a leadership role. Someone had to get these people armed and ready to help out, even if she hadn't seen any aliens all these guns and abilities were real. No one does all that for no reason, so if there were enemies around 10 guns were better than 4. Especially if most of them like her never had been in a real fight or ever fired a paintball gun.

Another snide comment woke her from her thoughts. This one came from what looked like a slightly darker Korean/Japanese Yuppie. "So we are following the words of that weak faggot who got KO'd and the other one who spread it for the guy who beat his ass?. Why don't we leave this bitch and wait for the police?"

Now Reika had put up with a lot today, death, poorly laid out attempts to sneak into her panties and even selfish whining. As a model she knew damn well that she herself had a number of petulant habbits, but questioning reasonable ideas in a life and death situation which already claimed 6 lives? That level of stupid was not going to slide on her watch. It would fester until someone got it in their heads to take charge and opt for a assinine plan and got more people killed. She heard Marcus sama, Kurono Kun was counting on her to do her part to keep everyone together. She knew there was something special about a man who didn't have a suit but made sure to let everyone know the dangers. He would get his points and survive, and she would make sure he had backup.

Reika stopped the unicycle. "Which one of you said that?"

The loudmouth attempted to back away but the American Black man with the Pantera shirt (she thought his name was R-Tip) said "why pussy out now big man? You really afraid of a sweet thing like her?".

The man said "Look I just want to know why we need to walk all the way to the start are to get suits when we haven't seen any of these so called aliens. We could just lay on the grass and wait for our rescue by the police. I didn't mean anything with the jokes".

"No what you meant to do was switch your mouth and ass. Think about it. The suits are real, the weapons are real, leaving the white area gets you killed, and nothing we have seen today can be done by the greatest powers on earth. Everything Kuronai dono and Marcus dono have said adds up. Are you really stupid enough to believe this is a tv program or something the police can deal with? Why do you think that madman was so happy to arm himself and run around here these suits like Steve Irwin on safari? I can assure there are easier ways to cosplay that don't involve dying and being beamed around like a laser printer.

So (she reached in and picked him up with 3 fingers and tossed him on his rump) You will all listen to me. We will go get your suits and you will practice with your weapons and we will stick together. Even if the police and Self defense forces were on their way 9 minutes ago this would be over long before they got here. I should remind you that Marcus sama didn't have to tire himself looking for you all or provide you with any warning. How many of you would do that for people who constantly mock them? So either walk or I will prove this isn't a joke by kicking your ass the rest of the way like a soccer ball. The same will happen to the next man that hits on me only I will punt them facing the other way.” The 4 wanksters laughed, as did the strange duo and a variety of people. They started a walking though.

"By the way, lets all share our names and bit about ourselves it'll make the trip more fun" and also distract her from the fact that there were yellow dots moving towards her position. Not rapidly mind you but sill closing. They would need those weapons and shooters to wield them. She picked up the pace, hoping Kei and the other would be alright.

The older reddish blonde member of the duo spoke "Look this is actually the least weird thing I have dealt with in the last 4 days, we should listen to the lady". As they walked the two psychics introduced themselves and gave a small display of their powers levitating some pocket change. It went a way to breaking the ice granting her leadership legitimacy.


	4. Chapter 4

Marcus' Cycle

I had seen many strange and inexplicable things in my 16 going on 17 (in a few months) years. Hard core macho gangsters who were actually gay and liked lilac perfume, police detectives who were actually honest, the first black president of the United States. Hell my life is was a walking contradiction if you were to read my life as an extrapolation of my circumstances and personal history. However, nothing I had experienced before could prepare me for the sight my eyes beheld as I crossed hill 19 of Shibi Park (and yes they numbered the hills). There was a 4.12 slightly overweight gal throwing down on what I could only think of as a stalky man made of cauliflower.

"You know if she was wearing a suit she probably would have killed that thing by now. Damn she is fiercer than some thugs I know".

It would seem not all Gals were Japanese versions of wiggers with no bite and in the future I would remember what I saw then.

Kaiza snickered and looked at me "I sense more spirit in her than many of the so called strongest I have beaten". Approaching the young woman's position were honest to goodness Jurassic Park style velociraptors.

"What the fuck! they have alien dinosaurs from bad movies here? This shit it bananas!" I put the cycle in park and stared at my controller list while zooming in. I did this to both get an accurate count of hostiles and a more definite scale of distance. From what I could gather the dinos and the girl were about 300 meters from me.

Sure If I gunned it I might be able to snatch the potty mouth from the situation. Of course I had no idea what skills those things had, how truly fast they were or if they could spit lasers. One does not play guesswork with your life or that of others. There was also the chance that I could just as easily miss the grab or break her neck in the extraction.

"If you don’t mind me asking if the point of this was to save people why are you stopping here?"

"The point is to save lives, not lose our own." I grabbed my X rifle and got out of the vehicle.

"If you would kindly step out of your seat I will take my shots from an elevated position". With that Kaiza picked me up and placed me on top of the cycle (likely without using enhanced strength), then handed me my rifle.

"Thank you, kindly observe" I said a quick prayer to Jesus that my aim would be true and timely. As it was the young gal had not noticed the 4 raptors closing in her, as she was very busy beating the celery man like the LAPD did Rodney King. I took a deep breath and looked through the scope.

I had shot rifles before, both at carnivals and at the range. I had even hunted rabbits and done rat skeeting with some of my southern friend’s cousins. Though I never was an excellent shot per say I realized that the suit strength basically negated recoil. I also doubted what ever these guns shot truly was affected by bullet drop or windage. Having said that it was wonky looking in through an X ray scope for what amounted to the fourth time today. I had asked Kaiza and Rei chans to drive while I got familiar with the scope a bit.

Which is why I only blew the shoulder off the first raptor ) as it closed to 60 meters to our Gal pal.

I hit the one in the rear to avoid spooking the others, having read it somewhere as an 'old snipers' trick. "Not a bad first shot with a new weapon" Kaiza said. The second raptor to last lost its head about 2 seconds later. By this point surprise was gone as the wounded one was crying to all the heavens. By now the gal had seen what was coming her way and was panicking. The good news is the still charging raptors stopped a moment to get a bearing on what had wounded their siblings.

I took that moment to remove the neck from one of the unwounded ones. It was then that the Celery alien brushed off the gal with a brisk motion. It seemed a bit larger than it was a few seconds ago from my point of view. A quick Xray look confirmed her chest was moving and I didn't see any broken bones, though she wasn't moving. The Kappe (I remembered the brief) then pointed its finger and me yelling Kazu. My instincts then kicked in I aimed at the wounded one and fired, and predictably it jumped.

"Those things are fucking fast Kaiza san".

"Well I doubt we would be given these tools if they were slow, maintain your breath Marcus san". I did just as he suggested as the lizard birds closed to 200 meters. I breathed and fired just ahead of where I thought the wounded one would land, once (miss), twice (got some feathers), three times (knicked his leg). The raptor stumbled at 140 meters and I ended him with what looked like a heart shot if that organ that appeared in its upper right chest on the X ray scope was its weak spot. That still left the uninjured one, which had closed to 90 meters, these shit birds are truly fast. I could see its teeth and I really did not want to see how much damage these the suits could protect us from. Intellectually I knew I should be able to pick up one of those dinos, as they weight less than some of the things I'd picked up today. However, my rational mind wasn't what was feeding my fears of those teeth.

I breathed deeply and fired again, destroying a tuft of grass 3 feet behind the damn thing. Then it made a mistake and lept at 50 meters. I took my eyes away from the eye piece and shouldered my gat while whipping out my pistol. Never run in a straight line, never hide behind grass and never jump in a straight line at a FPS gamer with a BFG and unlimited ammo. What entered into the air at 40 meters as a 8 meter saurian landed in a mess 5 meters from me as collection of gory bits. I and "my" ride of course still received a light coating of what I guess was grey matter, blood and intestinal juices. Now Kaiza sama had wisely stepped out of line of the things jump and if he got more than a few drops on his suit I'd be surprised.

"Exactly why didn't you shoot, as well my friend? The thing could have bitten you as well".

"I had perfect faith in your marksmanship, and I honestly I wanted to see how you would cope with pressure. You understand the strengths and limitations of your weapon and yourself and play to both". He began walking towards the slightly larger celery monster. He pointed at it and yelled and it did the same while moving toward him, ignoring me and the gal.

"Kindly leave this one to me. Please collect the young lady and the family of three and give them the aid they need". I looked a Kaiza sama. We both knew I could snipe out that thing from this distance before it closed but I also knew he could take the thing in his suit and there was the fact we wanted said celery monster to focus on him not said gal.

"Yo Kaiza" I dropped a sword (I had explained the weapons during the road trip) and a pistol on the ground. "Make sure I see you at the room when this is over. Rip him a new one!" I sped down the embankment toward the still gal while the two giants sized each other up. As I got closer to it Kappe was saying "Don't underestimate me". I slowed down long enough put the girl in my seat and ensure she didn't fall off. Then I was off at top speed to help the family of three as there was a yellow dot that was almost on top of them. I knew just how deadly one of those lizards could be.

Said gal woke up in between my location and the family of three. Her first move was to try to jam her finger in my eye. Such gratitude only dislocated the offending thumb. I had to stop for a minute to quickly explain, push the thumb back (its something that happens to baseball players occasionally) and to let her off so I could make it the family quickly. I would explain things more effectively after I saved those stubborn fools from either the raptors or getting their heads blown off. When I got there I saw the father beginning to struggle with the creature and after seeing the wife and son running in my direction. I took out my pistol and blew off its legs before it could retaliate. Then when husband backed away I finished with head shot.

I gave them the family basic instructions and told them to head to a couple of obvious landmarks, follow the directions of the Kurono and his lieutenants and to get their suits on asap. I then tossed the father my pistol. I still had Kaiza' rifle and my own and only two hands after all. On the way back I parked the two seater near the 14 year old gal, whose name was Benehime Shogutara. He face was mixture of pain, rage and shock.

"I'm sorry about your friend's death; she didn't deserve to die that way, especially at your age. I'm also sorry I cant leave you in peace and give you time to grieve. However, we are at war with those things and if each of us doesn't do our part we will all die here. I'm willing to let you back on the bike. I need people who will fight but not against each other. If you think and put your courage against the right target most of us can make it out of this mess and you can even get some pay back for.."

"Ayami Shonotsu, she was my cousin. We were like sisters" she said drying her eyes.

"Yes, you can help avenge Ayami and keep people like that little boy back there safe. He doesn't deserve to get eaten because his mother is a grade a bitch does he?" She shook her head "Didn't think so. Tell you what I'll even let you keep making gay jokes as long as you help me kill those damn things; what do you say?".

Benehime climbed into seat in the back with her confident attitude mostly restored and spoke in an eerily bloodthirsty perky tone with false bass "Lets drop on these bitch ass mini Kaiju like that comet started way back whenever B". I couldn't help but shudder and wish that whatever corporate studio executive first came up with the bright idea to commercialize fake thuggism was roasting in whatever hell would have him. I stated heading towards the congregation of dots. Hopefully they have set up a perimeter by now cause they will need it.

"By the way you hit damn hard for a gal, if you had a suit you probably would have killed that thing (only a slight exaggeration but confidence is part of morale) you seem a bit too tough for a rich girl".

"I learned Krav mega from my uncle, He's in the SDF. And me an my crew do fight club too. (She must have seen my smile creeping because her face turned petulant) Don't laugh; just because my prep school is posh doesn't make the girls any less bitchy. Any fools disrespect us in school they loose some teeth later. I gets respect cuz I put my own work in”. She then turned to look in my direction. “Are you and that dude really an Item? I mean you are tough enough to kill these things, so I don't really care if you're gay or whatever".

I shook my head in irritation. "Of all the questions to ask, does my gun run out of ammo?, Does my suit have any more powers, how does the controller work? You ask if I'm fucking some people I just met 2 hours ago and if I'm gay! No is the answer; I like pussy just as much as most dudes".

"Hey relax you said I could tease you!" I pause for a moment, then let out a belly laugh "That I did orange one, that I did. Let me break down how this gear works and you can explain to me why you chose to pull the Donald Trump look".

I then ran through the basic operations of the guns and stepped on the gas. The sooner Benehime was someone else's issue, the less likely I was to step on her. I take that back, she was more than a one dimensional airhead it seemed but her faux street attitude was trying, especially when it bordered wiggerism. It wasn't really her that made me angry as she was at least somewhat useful and not being deliberately or offensively racist (I even got the feeling she was trying to impress me), it was this fucked up situation that was eating my patience.

I was totally unprepared for something like this. Doom, Resident Evil, Unreal Tournament and others don't prepare you for dealing with fucking man eating dinosaurs and Kung foo using giant celery men with inferiority complexes and size issues.

"I hate these fucking thing too" the gal peeped up sensing the true cause of my ire and the lack of my response to her latest witicism. I nodded and decide to run my thoughts over with her.

I explained the worst scenarios that kept going through my mind. In a game when the number of enemies went down it implied the quality would increase. I noted the locations and groupings of the dots. The yellow dot near Kaiza's location went out a few minutes ago, but Kaiza's was still functioning. 

I really hoped that lughead remembered to bring the weapons; even if he didn't want to wield them, someone else would. Kaiza was ignoring the group of 3 dots that was steadily and slowly making his way to the "base area".

For a minute I was concerned they might run into the yellow mass of dots heading toward our "base". They didn't have a suit between them and only 1 weapon. Neither did they have a controller to see where their enemies were, but said enemies were ignoring them to converge in 3 places. Unlike them Kaiza had a suit and a controller. As he seemed the decent if bloodthirsty sort he likely had an idea that a good fight with another boss was in that direction and the family was in no real danger.

Going with that premise and the continued existence of yellow dots around 1 red dot to the east (had to be the pycho Izumi) and 2 red dots to the north (the old man and Kurono) led to the conclusion there was more than 1 "boss". This is because most fights were over in less than 40 seconds and as most of us were unarmed it was the red dots that vanished. I truly hoped Kurono survived and got his points, not only because he seemed like the only descent veteran, but he was the only one willing to give any information.

I judged it was unlikely that girl could change fast enough or safely in the coming fight so she would better serve with me as a mobile sniper at least until this group was finished. I said another quick prayer and prepared to sucker punch the group of raptors converging on our "base".


	5. Chapter 5

Battle of the Fort Kei

There were a lot more raptors converging on our team than dots. So this device or the intelligence it gets were not perfect. That or someone is fucking with the signal, which just as easily could include "our" own side. Questions flooded my mind. If "our" side has this level of tech why don't the aliens have guns and scanners too? They speak Japanese just fine and at least one of them has opposable thumbs and clothing. If they had any kind of firearms we'd all be dead already, even with the suits. Further, if they had jamming tech that could break our locks why aren't there any enemy machines. Was this a MIB situation or was this a Cabin In the Woods contest show with deadly force? Neither one really fit the situation at hand.

The sound of explosions, roars and shouts it at least 3 languages brought him back into reality and the fight.

"Quick think, how many dinos do you see?" "I make 13" she said. I had made 12 so that meant under 20 enemies.

"I got 12, so less than 2 dozen. Don't shoot yet and relax everyone is in their suits and can take at least a few hits. Please do as I a say, and do it quickly."

"Okay, Marcus san."

"Take a shooting position where your gun is supported by your shoulder like so." I demonstrated how she should use her seat for leverage, so in case I had to move rapidly she wouldn't get thrown. It was unlikely she would survive such a fall.

"Take a deep breath and firmly squeeze both triggers when you have a nice lock on an enemy. Remember when they run aim where they will be not where they are"

"Because you have a 2 second lag, yes I remember" Not for the last time that night or the many that followed I stifled the instinct to smack Benehime. I rather suspected the girl had received a good number of blows as I looked at her skin and not all of them might be from "fight club".

"Ok now see how they are spread out and going for the flanks. We are going to thin them out but don't fire if there are any of our people in the line of fire. We are shooting away from our people. I will hit anything that makes into the center.

Now to say I was impressed by our base was an understatement. Apparently, someone had had enough sense to rip out some kiosks and stack them in a roughly semi circular crescent pattern on either side of a solid looking concrete rain shelter. Further they had some people on the roof with rifles providing some surveillance and potential cover fire. The cycle was sitting in the center. Overall I would seriously congratulate whoever organized that, because it was excellent use of time and materials as far as I could tell.

The execution of the defense could use a bit a work though. Even without the element of surprise the raptors proved themselves somewhat effective infantry. The group of about 15 survivors were mixed bag. Some like the 3 yuppies froze, 4 dropped their weapons and began crying or praying. Which left about 8 people to actually carry out the defense of our fort. They responded to the reject Jurassic league at about 500 meters. Ironically it was the guy wearing sunglasses at night who got the first kill, He was one of the "roof snipers" and he pulped a dino from 430. At this everyone cheered and those who weren't gibbering wrecks opened up.

It was funny to see my fellow Americans shooting "gangsta" style, unfortunately recoil or not they couldn't hit shit. They weren't the only ones with horrible aim. In the space of time it took the reptoids to make it to 230 meters only 3 of them had bee hit. One was dead, one was missing a leg and another lost its eyes alongside the top of its head. It wasn't charging anymore but it was wandering around in circles.

It was then me and my apprentice entered the fray. We had decided to break into the one of the buildings and ride the bike up the escalator shafts an up to the 5 floor. It was enough height to make getting to us difficult, close enough that even we could land shots and roomy enough to dodge with the vehicle if we got surprised. I told here to shoot at the dinos coming in from directly ahead of her and to pick off the rearmost ones.

I started off the ball by removing the right thigh of an overfed compy 160 meters from the fort. Gal took the head off a northern saurid before it could jump. The competent roof sniper took the opportunity to finish mine and I think Rieka killed the blind bumbling one because it was facing her. My next shot missed, but the one after that exploded the chest of a Saurid, though Im sure I aimed for its head. Benehime plugged another two. At this point the dinos were both inside the "fort" area and split off some troops to deal with us. The screams of scared people were rampant.

One of the dinos landed on the roof to get at taste of the 2 snipers. Its tail smacked a rather skinny man in a leisure suit and dropped him to the floor before he could pull his pistol. He landed with a load scream, more surprised than hurt in the middle of the desperate fight on the ground floor. The roof raptor got his own surprise in that the knitted cap gentleman laterally bisected it with the telescoping sword while it was distracted.

It looks like the suits were good for more than just one or two hits. I saw man get head butted into the concrete wall and bounce like a rubber ball, leaving a man shaped crater, only to get up. At least it made him angry enough to grab both halves of the jaw of an approaching raptor and separate them. He then bent over and relieved himself of his lunch.

Though, it wasn't going all our way. The man who had fallen from the roof was soon caught between 3 of the beasts. He was bounced around 3 times by tail swipes and a few bites, but before anyone could get to him one of the beasts put its talons through his chest. The death of one their comrades stole the heart from many of the others and effective resistance was down to Rieka, the father and son duo, the knitted hat sniper and the 3 wanksta brothers. I noticed one of them, the one with the Pantara hat dropped his weapon and tripped over another trembling middle aged salaryman in his rush to escape. It would appear his luck didn't abandon him with is nerve as the dino who had made the earlier kill landed on the salaryman rather than him. That blow didn't kill him but it did break his shield the lizard than bit off his head. Pantara hat threw up and started crying.

*"Jesus save me, I'll give up weed and all the hoes. I'm sorry I slept with Devon's girl and his sister Sashone. Forgive me" The dino might have been amused by the 11th hour confessional, or maybe it just liked toying with its food because it let him finish before opening its mouth to take its third prize for the night.

Just in time to receive a haymaker punch to the side of its head from his friend with the Pantera gold teeth. A number of teeth flew as the Dino smashed into the shelter. While it was confused the man with golden bridgework shot it with his pistol and the thing's head flew into pieces.

"So that's why my sister was so angry with you, We'll deal later, but if your ass don't stop acting like a lil bitch I'll feed you to the next damn dinobird myself. We clear Trey?" The younger man looked up at his possibly ex friend and took the hand he was offered.

Having witnessed that little scene me and the gal set about dealing with the 4 lizards that were currently charging our way. They seemed to be getting faster as they ate up the 800 meters between us and them. I had just realized that the first button can serve as a lock on mechanism. I chose the one on the right as a practice. I held the xray over its chest until its heart thing changed colors then I depressed the second button and it blew into 3 pieces.

"Benehime, there's a better way of doing this, we can take them out without so much trouble". The other 3 exploded at the same time.

"Yes senpai you can lock onto more than one of them with the first trigger, It just came to me!" She gave me a devilish smile.

The greatest surprise of the night came from the odd father and son group. They had dropped their weapons the minute the dinos got within 40 meters. I thought they were going to do some kung fu like Kaisa sama. Nope they killed wiith their minds. I mean one minute there were 3 dinos dancing around them and the next the both made jedi hand movements and the dinos just dropped.

The wankstas, well I’ll be generous as they were somewhat useful, realized their shooting skills were worse than their acting and just picked up heavy objects and swung them. When one of the dinos bit off the arm of a young teen, the brotha with the Pantera shirt struck the creature with a marble bench upside the head. It wasn't enough to kill it but Rieka followed it up with a point blank rifle shot to its head. The last dino had its tail shot off after it smacked Pantera shirt 12 feet in the air with it and it died when Pantera teeth drove metal rebar through its chest and into a concrete pillar.

With our immediate enemies dead I decided to get Benehime to the base and in a suit. I suspect that Kuranai and the old man were finally showing up, I hope his point business was done so we could get some answers. I also needed to get some control over the situation before the phyco could show up. I recognized the location his blip was at and the speed it was converging on the base. If he went off we stood a better chance of surviving him with concentrated firepower. I also noticed the blip behind him (the only yellow blip left) which could be mean he found something even he couldn't take alone. This was a bad situation no matter which horror scenario played out.

*Indicates dialogue I could not possibly have heard, but received second hand. It is included for the sake of humor and narrative prerogative.


	6. Chapter 6

Fort Kei after the battle

Up close the base was a jumble of gore, busted concrete and bodies. From what I could see there were no fewer than 2 fatalities 3 serious injuries and half a dozen suits were done. I learned then that when blue liquid came out of the suit it couldn't help you anymore and you lost your "powers".

I drove up to the center where Reika addressed me in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear. " Hello Marcus sama. I know that was you two up there picking them off".

"Yeah, wish we could have got more though”. 

"I got more than you though" the brat whispered just low enough for only me to hear. I gave her a grimace and she shut up.

"How bad did we get hit?". Reika looks around and says "One man, one woman and a young boy are dead. 3 men 1 women wounded including broken bones and deep cuts. We only have 5 people with working suits. Maybe 1 of the wounded can still shoot a rifle. I have them laid up on benches and we are making them as comfortable as we can. I hope the vets take out the last one so we can get everyone out alive."

"You all did a damn good job. Can you introduce me to those two miracle workers" It turned out the two psychics were just mentor and mentee and not related at all. The older red orange head was Kenzo Sakata and his tomato pupil was Hiroto Sakurai.

"Thanks to you a lot of lives were saved".

The younger one said "We still lost too many, our attack range isn't that far and we cant shoot too well yet". Kenzo nodded.

"To tell the truth most us can’t, but you both showed courage and never gave up. So exactly what is it you do? TK, mind reading, magic?" I was curios as to their range of powers.

Kenzo "We can effect things on a molecular level, but we have to be close to pull stuff like crushing hearts or causing a stroke".

Sakura looked uncomfortable and stared at the floor for a second.

I though a minute "Is it possible for you to reset broken bones, put limbs back together or stitching together veins? I mean if you can pull them apart..."

Kenzo answered " It might be possible for a doctor or a nursing student to do that, but we don't have medical training".

Thinking for another few seconds he then said "However stopping blood flow, or slowing a heart rate, or keeping bones from collapsing a lung seems simple enough". He motioned for his pupil and went to help the wounded.

At this point the third bike rolled in and Kurano and the old man semi stumbled off, both a bit worse for wear. "There's only one left" He took a look around "Damn, what happened here, I came back here as fast as I could"

Reika walked up to him "Kurona san I'm happy you lived, did you get the points you need? We all need you to get out of this mess. We have 3 dead and 4 wounded. Marcus san has the psychics stabilizing the wounded. Fort Kei is down to 5 working suits, not including Marcus san and Benehime. I did the best I could, but we lost so many."

She began to cry and started looking depressed. "Tell me what to do, there's one coming this way and I know its bad if the madman isn't fighting it." She started sounding agitated.

"Kurana dono knows you are the reason all these lives were saved." I turned to him hoping he would play along and keep the heart of the team functional "Reika did a great job getting the fort Kei set up. The fire lanes set up a clear line of fire and she posted snipers on the roof. She even got everyone suited up. No one can expect salarymen and college kids to play Turuk or Rambo.”

"Fort Kei? Kurana dono?"... He looked at me. I moved behind Reika and made a go along gesture. Kei shot me an ugly look, but he took a deep breath before addressing Reika.

"Look you did a great job dealing with these..things Reika but leave Izumi and that thing to me. Just get everyone someplace safe and don't get more involved".

The old man said "You don't have a suit and I saved you last time against those fire ball Rexes. at least let me come along".

"Fine, just you then"

Which is when lil pipsquek spoke up. "We should provide back up. WE sniped more than a few of those things from long range. If you have your points already we can kill the thing if you distract it. Of course I'm a better shot than Marcus sempai" She stuck her tongue out at me.

Kurano looses some of his composure then " Look, this isn't some kind of game. You sniped a few of those small ones, I'll bet good money what's coming this way is giant. Those guns wont kill it with one shot and the big ones can shoot big ass fireballs. You are a little girl and you aren't even wearing a suit."

He then turned to me and Reika "You two made me leader, fine, do what I say. Keep these people safe and let me and old man finish this. I don't want anyone else dying playing hero".

The gal was starting to chirp. She was likely going to point out he was almost as young as she was and didn't have a suit either. I put my hand on her shoulder and pressed gently while shaking my head.

"Fine, the 4 blips you see are the family of 3 and Kaiza dono. He beat the Kappe alien a few minutes ago and has a suit, sword, controller and pistol, the father also has 1 pistol. By the way do you have all the points you need?"

Kei Kurono nodded both in acknowledgment of the info and to answer my question. "Then my advice is wound the thing and let Izumi take the kill. Its not worth your life to deal with is brand of madness and tell Kaiza that as well. Also tell him that using weapons is a good idea no matter how good a fighter he is"

At the mention of the too handsome and tall psycho Kei's face tightened but he nodded again and set off with the old man at high speed.

"What bullshit is that, He's going to fight a big alien with no suit and no back up except for a crazy guy and some arrogant martial artist. You said this guy was important for what he knows and we are just listening to his brand of crazy. He isn't my dad!" Lil bit was frowning I cut her off.

"If you were in the bike with no suit and I flip over, you will die. I'm not a biker and if I have to dodge giant balls of fire you will be taking a dive, unless you are secretly a bosozoku (delinquent biker) and should be driving?" She shook her head "I'm not explaining that to your parents. I'm almost 17 and yes that's only a few years older than you but there's a difference. Not a lot but enough. Go and put on your suit" She looked at me funny for a minute then walked off "By the time I'm dressed he might already be dead and then we'll probably be stuck with that madman as the only vet, you know I'm right" She stormed off in a huff to find her box.

When she was out of sight with her box Rieka turned to me. "You really aren't taking her with you are you? because while I know you aren't letting Kei chan deal with this by himself you cant get overgrown brats get crushed by monsters."

"Hell no, I just need her busy for few minutes, take control of the other bike so our best gal doesn't follow and get everyone deep inside a building. Put some people on the roof to snipe whatever shows up. If its really big have them shoot the eyes. Hell put Benehime on that, it will make her feel important."

"Hold up why am I not coming, my suit works and don't tell me its because I'm a girl".

"Lets see, you are 1 of 6 working suits here and one of the few who will actually fight. You are also the only person outside of Kei that everyone will listen to without threats of violence and they respect your authority. Also those 3 fools stopped moving toward us. Maybe they got lost, maybe they are arguing. But after you get everyone settled someone has to take their suits and weapons to them. I know we are supposed to be sent back when this is over, but I don't trust everything I hear. Even from Kurono Dono's mouth". I waved a good bye then thought about it "Also hand me your rifle, I'm sure you have a few spares". She did and with that I peeled off.


	7. Chapter 7

Kei and the Baldy

"Do you think anyone will follow us" Baldy said looking around as he was riding shotgun.

"Oh someone will try to play hero, but this will be over before they can catch up. What I don't like is how Izumi can't finish whatever it is. That means it’s nastier than him. Unfortunately, it hasn't eaten him yet".

"I've been meaning to ask you, what do you have against him? He seems a bit obsessed and he hit you more times than was needed. He even threatened Marcus sama for trying to get answers, and he was very polite to everyone".

"Don't get me started with Izumi and obsession, lets just say he won’t let anything get in his way including human decency and we'll leave it at that for now. As for Marcus sama he rubs me kinda wrong".

"Why Kei sama? Marcus Sama hasn't done anything but try to keep people alive. He shared everything you told us. I suspect he was responsible for most of the defenses as well as the medical care. Not to mention he found the bike room and brought out the suits".

"Fine, but why did he set me up to take credit for all of it and make it seem like he's my lieutenant and I'm some kind of damn general? I'm probably younger than him even if he is bigger than me. He sounds more educated than he lets on too. People like that are manipulative and you can’t trust them".

"Well I don't know him, but he makes logical points for everything he does. He wants to live and strong teamwork is the best way to survive. Also you are young but know more than anyone else, you are skilled in combat and you don't hesitate. You also care about getting people out of here in one piece. There is also the fact you are Japanese and male meaning people will accept you as leader more easily. Reika listens to you and most of them will listen to her. The giant, well you'd be stupid to get on his bad side. He also took your side against Izumi and made sure everyone else was warned about his problems. You don't have to trust Marcus sama, but please try to give him the benefit of the doubt".

"Fine, I won’t judge him. He damn sure isn't Izumi. Well we should see whatever horror is waiting for us soon. By the way this scanner isn't perfect with what it shows us. Sometimes it gets the numbers wrong."

"I noticed.."

A loud Cry is heard followed by a crash.

"Little Ones, You have killed my children, You will pay!!"

A too handsome man in a black suit clutching a Panda Bear was seen dodging a prehensile tail. On closer look that "tail" had eyes and two crescent moon blades growing from its chin and crown. A second later Izumi was flying through the air, his extendable sword going in the opposite direction; imbedding itself into concrete after cutting 2 security personnel in half.

Both riders exclaimed "Shit!"

The Mother Bear

"You will suffer for what you did!" Her long legs easily keeping up with the running man in the black suit.

A long tail flew across the ground wiping out 40 of the pathetic beings that thought they could rule this world forever. She had been willing to wait for others to wipe them out, while relaxing in the shadows replenishing her people’s numbers. Eventually she would have to face the Adversary that chased them from her people's last world. Her group had decided to try this planet as it was the nicest one within range of her people's abilities.

They did not use ships, but manifested their powers in ways lesser minds could not conceive. Once many years ago a group of her people called this place home for a while. Unfortunately the planet was subjected to some form of attack by jealous neighbors. No one was ever able to prove who did it because communications were cut before and during the attack. But that weapon devolved the brains of everyone who was on planet at the time. The planet was quarantined until some cure could be found and administered.

What no one realized was said cure would come rapidly and with finality via a large asteroid that went unnoticed due to the arrogance of some watchmen. There were still legends to this day of the torments they were sentenced to. Most of her people had transitioned at that time and were spared, though the remains of many were "fossilized". How appropriate of these small ones to place the remains of their betters in shrines and honor them. It was why she chose this place for her first brood. She would have stayed here content and preparing to hold this world against all who would take it from her people. Once she had a good bridgehead she would open the link allowing the rest of their forces to arrive. Let the adversary make something of it!

But no, first some damn rogue geneticist and its toys, mockeries of her children, shows up to challenge her in her own nest! If that wasn't enough it brought those murderers in black suits. She would have stayed in her bed and let them kill each other, but they shot all her babies and her mate. This one fool in front of her, who only recently gained wisdom enough to attempt to flee for its pathetic life, actually strolled into her bedroom with his pet and cut her eldest children to pieces. Then it had the nerve to try and decapitate her as though her brain was in so obvious a place. It was insulting and arrogant. I made her anger boil over!

"Ahh! I will kill you all" Her tail then smashed another 7 men. They were so pathetic they couldn't even see how easily she destroyed them. The fact that she was leaving obvious prints and the pattern of her attack should let them know enough of her nature. However these small ones and their small minds never let them rise above such petty concepts as vision in the low electro magnetic spectrum.

No, matter she would kill all here and get back to preparing the way. She was able to change the sex of her offspring and always kept a few unlaid eggs in her pouch. A few days for a new mate and the reclamation of her people's colony would continue.

But first things first. "Feel my wrath!"

Pappa Wolf

"The aliens are intelligent?" asked baldy.

"Some of them can speak, though I don't know if they are speaking our language or just mouthing words. A lot of stuff that Gantz puts us through don't make much sense" Kei responded.

"Well she implies we killed her children for no reason, so I assume she can think".

"To be honest I think a few of them are just dumb animals hiding here. The first one I met didn't do anything but mumble nonsense. Then few of us killed it and its parent killed my friend. I can't say for certain the father would have been peaceful if we had left it alone, though it might be possible to co exist". He paused and looked at his companion in a weary way.

However, I've seen what they do to innocent people without provocation or hesitation once they are discovered. Every other alien I've met fits in category 2. They killed people without suits or weapons; sometimes when they are crying and cringing on the ground. They don't care about killing people who can’t even see them. I wonder how many murders happen that get written off as accidents. Each group of these things we run into seem to be breeding quickly. If they weren't up to something wrong, why would they hide and nest like that?"

The older salary man was quiet as he contemplated Kei's words.

It was then that Kei saw Izumi fly in the air after receiving a wind pressure wave. The bike swerved to avoid some debris and both noticed that a moaning black panda and human body parts were among the flying detritus.

"Ok we go in blazing. Izumi deserves to get eaten but the panda and those security men need our help. We can finish this talk later, agreed?" the baldy nodded.

All around Japanese security officers wailed and ran for cover as pieces of concrete and limbs rain down on them. May believed it to be a bomb, but those brave souls continued to move toward the giant stegosaur kaiju they couldn't see.


	8. Chapter 8

The Proud Lion

So many dots went out. He couldn't believe those losers managed to get kills with their own hands. Izumi though about it, Kei didn't have a suit, but he probably told a few people to wear theirs. If he took weapons they might have held their own against the velociraptors. Still didn't explain how fast some of those dots had been moving. If someone had been paying attention they might have seen him walk into the other room, but he had closed the door behind him slowly. Wait that black kid did had got him talking with flattery and he was smart enough to listen to him.

So that meant that Kei had a bike and weapons and at least 2 people with suits. That explained why the yellow dots in the north went out, a man on foot couldn't travel that fast even in a suit. There were some yellow lights in the east that were surrounding a few walking dead a few minutes ago and they had gone out within seconds. It was probably the black kid, what's his name, using them as bait. Izumi wondered if he figured out how to cloak as well and had played with the one that had lasted a few minutes longer. The large group off the right of him had finished off an attack too. Probably he and Kurono had each taken a bike and were sniping. He knew that Jarol whatever his name was, was too smart to try and get close to these things. He hadn't fucked with the big points, so as long as he knew his place he could keep breathing. Kurano wasn't important either though the next time he tried his patience he'd finish him off.

He was contemplating how to best make use of all the new bait, as next round they would all probably be wearing their suits. It might actually be better that way, most of them couldn't shoot straight if they even bothered trying to defend themselves. Likely 3/4ths of them would quiver in fear after wetting themselves. The monsters would take a few bites and Izumi would get all the points. He would just have to school the newer hunters who proved themselves fit to survive, at least enough to keep the trash mobs busy while he went after the big points. Anyone who challenged him, well he knew how to deal with them.

His revelry and plots were cut short as a 4 legged giant, resembling a blade bearded Stegosaurus rose from the pile of bodies in front of him. "So what exactly are you?". The eyes on the weird lizard opened as its height continued to increase.

"Tell me little one, why did you kill my children?".

Izumi had had said enough words to human walking dead for one day, and was not in the mood for speaking with an alien one. So he whipped out his pistol and rifle and started shooting. his weapons were somewhat less than effective, only making 3 foot deep and 7 foot diameter holes. Eventually they would work, but that was not time Izumi had for the creature swung its tail and wrecked the space Izumi was just holding. "Yep, that's my que to leave" he said. He could lure the thing outside, cloak and find its weak spot while it was busy attacking someone else. It was a strategy that had paid off many times before.

Izumi lost his rifle due to the pressure wave or debris being thrown around. He landed in a summersault and sprinted to where the amorous bear was hiding. He fired three rounds into the wall in front of him, and put the the fairly useless weapon back in his holster. For some reason he picked up the bear with his free arm and kicked the weakened wall. He was outside when he activated his cloak. He saw the roof split open with a roar, and saw the head of the beast swivel out towards him.

He tossed the bear a good 8 feet fairly gently. It had the good sense to run in the opposite direction as opposed to hugging him tighter than his girlfriend did. Izumi always knew that most animals were smarter than most people, he now had unnecessary proof. He didn't have anything against the bear, and hoped it survived. Of course giving the giant monster another thing to chase would coincidentally increase his odds of survival.

The giant Kaiju wasn't having any of that and swung its tail right at him. So it could see him, or smell him. Izumi made a last minute course correction and avoided the swing. Extending his katana he chopped of the thing's tail about 1/3 of the way from the base. He didn't see the neck until it slapped him. Izumi felt that hit, even though he had thankfully dodged the chin blade and his suit was intact he would be sore until he got back to the Gantz room. His head turned to see that ant Kurono and the bald old man in a suit. They were trying to steal his kill. He needed to get back on his ‘A’ game. "Shit" escaped from his lips.

Kei and Suzuki's Gantz cycle

"Those doomed men are brave" The old man spoke "They are heading into death and still won’t break, reminds of what our boys were like back in the day, except their reasons aren't based on lies".

"Focus, Suzuki san. We can talk war stories and patriotism later. I want you to drive around that thing’s legs. I'll shoot it a few times to get it to follow us away from those people. Then I'll find a way to finish it"

"Like with those fire breathing Rex's"

"Except this time none of us will fall off!"

"From you lips to the Kamis' ears Kurono kun"

With that Kei started firing his guns rapidly at the big thing. He tried aiming at its head, but for some reason the thing dodged almost all his shots. Worse it stomped the ground hard enough for the cycle to wobble and almost spill him from his seat again.

As they risked getting closer Kei was able to make shots on the body and legs, but they did much less damage than to the other things he had fought today. At this rate he wouldn't be able 

While he was doing as much damage as horse fly to an elephant the creature was becoming enraged.

"Are you the little ones that murdered my children?" It roared as it smashed anther dozen first responders.

It was then Izumi came back into the fray. He ran picked up his sword with his right hand made some kung fu gesture with the other and tried the flowing water cut on the things neck. The creature moved like a whirlwind, it's neck telescoping at odd angles and shredding a great deal of the surrounding turf, statues and people still moving in to provide aid at what they assumed a terrorist attack.

Izumi' sword bounced off it skin 4, 8, 10 times. Then somehow he found the grain of its scaly hide and separated its head. Everyone present was still for a moment, then the head landed on Izumi pinning him to the ground. The trunk just stood for a few minutes before falling to a kneeling position.

"So is that it then?, should we help dig Izumi out?" the balding man asked "His dot didn't go out and with our luck its unlikely he will suffocate before we shuffle out of here. We only have about 12 minutes to go. Let him rot. He wanted the big kill, let him enjoy it!"

As this continued another wave of first responders including unarmed emt, mostly young women and older doctors showed up. They were starting to check the casualties for signs of life and headed towards the building the creature had wrecked chasing Izumi.

It was then the trunk stood back up and a series of eyes formed all along the underbelly of the creature.

"Are you the little ones who slayed my children?" echoed across the area. It was so vibrant it knocked down the bystanders who couldn't see or hear it. Those who survived would likely call it an aftershock of the non existent but soon to be reported rare simultaneous terrorist bombing and earthquake.

Kurono thought quickly "Yes it was me and me alone. If you want your revenge come and get it you ugly lizard" He fired at the momentarily stationary trunk, putting out a few eyes. He barely needed to tap Suzuki for him to put pedal to the medal away from there. The behemoth set on their tail at break neck speed.

The last samurai

Despite what others, his new black compatriot among them might believe, Kaiza was not some glory obsessed fool stuck in the old ways for no other reason save tradition. His life was defined by purpose, to be the best at what he did; which was the pursuit of physical martial excellence. To that end he had spent practically every moment he was not eating or sleeping training in as many forms of unarmed combat as he could master. He had forsaken his higher studies, romance and some would say his humanity for that goal. He had challenged the Kappe alien to mortal combat instead of shooting it for what he saw as justifiable reasons.

Kaiza knew he could take "Kappe" based on quick observations. First the little firebrand had actually been able to injure it without a suit. She had actually forced it to call for back up to deal with a pudgy little 14 year old girl! If she was wearing her suit she would have killed it before it could grow. He suspected it was that same suit that allowed Kurono sama to defeat him earlier. The pieces began to fit and fell into place after he slammed Marcus sama to no effect earlier today.

Second, there would come a time when he would have no weapons save for this suit. If his life would depend on a tool it must be tested under a controlled environment. This Kappe alien had shown no abilities aside from growing after getting injured and superior strength. It would make a good test opponent to get a handle on how strong future "boss" like enemies would be as well as his improved capabilities. It had no available back up and the weapons Marcas sama left, should he need them, were too small and unsuited for Kappe's hands. 

He had seen Marcas san shoot, and while he was competent he did not believe he could kill the creature without risking the youngsters life. The creature seemed to have a one task focus but he would rather not have innocent blood on his hands. Kaiza always entered every conflict with the acceptance his life might end, but such a choice applied to him and his opponent alone. He was confident in his strength and skill would completely occupy the Karre.

Kaiza also needed to gather some "points". Marcus sama had no idea of what these points were used for, but if they had impact on his life then he would gain a few.

His thoughts ended the minute the Kappe made its move. It threw 4 surprisingly skilled rabbit punches to his face and a straight jab at his chest that sent Kaiza a few feet back without knocking him down.

"Hear Me! Don't look down on Me!" it bellowed.

Kaiza shook his head. That blow might have broken his ribs or even killed him had he not put on his suit. He would thank or apologize to Marcus sama should the man survive his own challenges. Kaiza charged and ducked the right hook of the creature. As there was a time limit and others might need help he would not draw this out. He caught the creature's arm and broke it at the elbow joint. This was followed by a straight punch to the creatures distended stomach right in its extended belly button and concluded with an uppercut strong enough to generate a loud cracking sound. The Kappe was sent 30 feet back and about 8 feet in the air to land among the remains of its pets.

"One does not need to look down on opponents who send attack dogs on young women, for they can go no lower!". Over all, it was not the most dissatisfying fight he had had. He began to walk over to where the weapons were; without doubt Marcus sama would want them returned. As he was half way to them he heard another sound.

"Listen.. " The creature's arm had reset and it was standing tall one more. Or rather it was taller by about 7 feet making it about 18 feet high and bit thicker. "Don't look down on me"

It charged Kaiza. When it got within range Kaiza side stepped, jumped and dropped an axe kick on the back of its head sending his straw hat flying. Kare's face hit the grassy turf. Not satisfied Kaiza stood on the creature's back grabbed its head and twisted Kappe's neck 180 degrees so that it faced him.

He then walked the rest of the way to where the weapons were. He checked his controller to tell him where to meet the others and noticed that the yellow marker near him was still active. He wondered if there another boss at the same time he heard the sound of bone snapping back together.

"Listen," The damn thing was 34 feet tall now, "Don't Look down on Me!" At this point Kaiza was pissed. He charged the thing telegraphing a drop kick and when he got within range the Kappe made ready to smash him. That’s when Kaiza flipped his sword and cut his arms off. First the one that was coming in to break his head, followed by the other one. Then he cut his legs off above the knee and kicked him on his back.

Kaiza then extended the blade and cut the things head off from 8 feet away. For good measure he cut the rest of the trunk into 6 pieces. He looked down on his scanner and saw the yellow pip fade out. He might not very skilled with swords and preferred to fight with his own body, but he did train Kendo in his youth. 

Kaiza reset his sword and attached it to his belt alongside the controller and pistol. Then he bowed toward his opponent.

“Ordinarily I would have continued to used my techniques until I found one that would put you down. However, there are people in danger that I agreed to help and I needed to end this quickly. My apologies”.

Regardless of his annoyance at resorting to using a weapon, he bowed toward the remains of his stubborn opponent and ran double time toward the last yellow pip.


	9. Chapter 9

The lone Ranger

As I sped toward my first true boss raid I felt so many conflicting emotions. Beside the fear and horror at the death I just witnessed and caused, that is. Yes, I was actually helping to save lives and defending others against clearly evil opponents. On the other hand I was just shanghaied into what looked like a black ops army of slaves. I mean why did they pick a bunch of students and civilians? Didn't they realize most of us would break instead of fighting? We were lucky many men would fight to protect or impress a woman especially a celebrity model. But that seemed to be luck of the draw and social evolutionary response kicking in instead of a premeditated plan on the part of our kidnappers.

Then there was the bare essence of the situation. I mean I was deeply offended at the slavery implications as an American Black man, yet at the same time to be chosen to fight aliens is kind of every otaku's/nerd wish fulfillment.

First thing first I decided. There was no manual on how to deal with a giant dinosaur monster, but there was no avoiding reality. I had the same weapons Izumi had, but he was running away from it. Yes he could have been toying with it but he didn't want others to steal his kills and he had gotten pretty violent about it. Kurano didn't have a suit, but Izami knew he could still shoot. 

None of those facts filled me with confidence. Well I figured I wouldn't get much from that line of thought so I withheld judgment until I saw it. There was no point in getting scarred or psyching myself into cowering in a corner. Kurano said he had his points already, so I could just snipe kill the thing and if worst came to worst I would just take a few shots to distract the thing while someone else got the kill.

I felt it before I saw or heard it. There was a rumbling that affected my driving. Whoever called dinosaurs terrible thunder lizards was not joking. Ahead of me pushing 40 km per hour were Kei sama, Suzuki san and 80 feet of angry lizard with full metal alchemist homunculi eyes all down its belly. I noticed that it was swerving somewhat and every few seconds I would see some bloody patch explode. I had a few choices. I could drive towards the thing or try and snipe from my position.

Obviously I took out my first rifle and started firing at the belly. The more eyes it lost would probably make it less likely to be able to fight effectively. I might even get lucky and kill it. We were down to 10 minutes and I really didn't want to find out what happened if enemies were still alive at the end of a "round".

The creature’s eyes actually moved, I could feel as well as see the irises switch to my direction. "That's not good" I said aloud. I didn't know if my bike was actually faster than that thing as Kei was only barely in front of it as it was.

In the danger zone

"What is that madman doing?" Kei asked.

"It seems he is trying to draw its attention".

"I'd say its working, I hope he knows what he's doing". Lets help him gets some better shots. Kei said as he managed to put out another 2 eyes. "Drive to the left in a loop and see what the thing does!"

The creature's speed increased and they started driving more erratically due to its yells and the shaking of the ground.

The relative value of the high ground

" You little ones think you are smart. Your tricks won’t escape my eyes. I will eat all of you!" it bellowed loud enough for me to hear as far away as I was.

And with that it made an impossible leap. It might not have been able to keep up its pace for long but a sudden burst of speed allowed to overtake the bike and land not to far away. It missed but it broke the ground up enough to cause the Kei's cycle to either stop or crash. Suzuki did his best to bleed speed but the cycle did a tumble and Kurono sama flew without wings.

Fortunately for him the creature had broken the ground which was mostly soft dirt following today’s light rain. Kurano san had landed in some muddy puddle and even though it looked like he wasn’t moving I assumed he was still alive. Which I confirmed when I looked at my controller and noticed 2 red pips were still in front of me. There were 2 more inbound, Kaiza and Izumi. Of course staying alive for the next 2 minutes was more my problem than a psycho or the wannabe martial arts action star.

I was knocked out of my bike by the shock of that jump. Logically I could have just pushed the thing back up and ran for dear life. However, it just showed me it could jump and I was not a motorcycle driver. Hell I had barely started practicing for my driver’s license. I was not dodging this thing on the road in any way. Worse it probably would just kill Kei and I'm dam sure Izumi wouldn't be as helpful a second time.

Shit, that meant I needed to kill or incapacitate it before it got to me. Time slowed down and I forced myself to think. The monster was covered in wounds, but where could I hit that thing that would slow it down or stop it. It had stopped it charge after the jump either because it had injured its legs or because it was tired after all that running.

I put down one rifle walked slowly forward and took a shooting stance on one knee. The creature was at an impasse. "Now you hurt little one. Good. Why did you attack my children?". Kei was almost on his feet and saying something I could not hear. That's right keep him talking I whispered. Now all he had to do was piss what I assumed was a her off enough to charge, I not miss my shot and then him avoiding getting squashed and make end things.

At some point the alien screamed "Murderer!" and charged at the shaky teen. For some reason the Baldy wasn't shooting. However, I wasn't waiting. I took aim at the thing’s left front leg. It already had damage so it was the best bet. I didn’t and still don't know if "real" dinosaurs had a measured gait but this thing did. At about 300 meters from Kei I started putting shots in the back of its knee. It ate up the distance quickly, but at 120 meters I saw effect, apparently it was so mad it didn't notice the damage until it was too late. 80 meters from Kurono sama its ligaments gave way and it flipped over on its left side missing the somewhat wobbling Kei.

Kurono sama, was less wounded than he appeared because he then closed the distance as the thing tried to stand up again and using 2 rifles (so that's what happened to Suzuki's gun) he blew its rear legs off at the knees, followed by its front legs. He then said something I would later know as "Tae I will return" before blasting the thing in its weak spot.

With all enemies down we had about 10 minutes or so until beam out. Kei was looking in my direction withh mild annoyance (I could tell with my scope). I wasn’t dealing with his shit, so I decided to head over to the family of three and meet up with Reika and whoever she came with. I could deal with Izumi and Kei chan later. With a wave of my rifle and a bow I got back on my bike. As I was driving that way I said fuck it and started looking at the other buttons on my controller. Among them was the kanji marked stealth mode.


	10. Chapter 10

Something strange in your neighborhood

Damn I wished I knew about this mode from the beginning. I mean its likely the dinos could smell or taste me anyway, but every bit helps in mortal combat.

Anyhow I decided I would stay in cloak and see what everyone else was thinking. It was likely that anyone other than Izumi or Kei could do this. If the others had figure it out they would have used it by now. Unless he could see me in this mode I could avoid the madman sneaking up on me and ride out the rest of the clock.

I pulled up to witness The red head magician and Pantera shirt having a friendly discussion with Kaiza and the family of 3. I thought that I really needed to get the rappers names.

The father was in his suit, his wife and child were not. As usual she was arguing.  
"Umi, why are you going along with these people? (I rolled my eyes as I'm sure dark shades was as well) They are not the police. We should have followed all the emts and security that went by a few minutes ago".

"Nara, these kind people explained that they fought a giant monster and most of those people are dead. Plus you saw how we can't talk to people. They don't even see or hear us. If we had gone further the way we were trying to walk home we would have blown up like so many others".

"How do you know that? This is probably a scam or a tv show and we were kidnapped (her voice got even more shrill to my suprise)"

"You saw those.. those things and I see the map their controller has. Honey they were locked in the same room as us, and some of them died fighting these things. That man right there closed my wounds in front of you".

"Daddy, Mommy I want to go home!"

"Son be strong we will leave this place in 5 minutes at the most" The father stroked his son's head.

"How do you know that, how do you know these people aren't in on it? They could be criminals, hell they probably are and that uniform means you are part of their gang. You could be taking the fall for all this.."

"Nara please stop scaring the boy, the fighting is over. I’m wearing the suit because it makes me stronger. You saw me pick up the rock. You should put one on yourself and give one to our son".

"Oh daddy I want to be a super hero too, so I can protect mommy from the bad dinosaurs like you and that nice black man did".

"No you may not. Those suits are not descent and I won’t let those perverts look at my body like that. You should be ashamed.."

I didn't get to listen to more of this because 4 gentlemen dressed like modern day beach bum Yakuza showed up. At first I was thinking they were just there to size the tragedy up for possible exploitation, like their kind always does. Then I noticed 2 more things, they were staring at my compatriots and they were armed. They hadn't done anything yet, and they were not on my radar but I had a bad feeling.

Then Kaiza sama noticed them and tapped the foot of the red headed mystic. He turned and coughed. At that point everyone turned facing the incoming gentlemen. The Pantera shirt rapper held his weapon in his hand but was not aggressively pointing it. As they got closer I noticed that they looked human in every way except for their fangs. Silently I shuddered thinking the Japanese gangsters started copying that style too.

At that point I reached for my weapons and started wondering who I should shoot first. Damn only 2 minutes before we get to leave and this shit starts.

"Hello hunters!" said the man with blond hair courteously making use of English for the benefit of the American.

"I think you are making a mistake, me and my husband have nothing to do with any hunters. They tricked him into putting on that stupid suit." she turns to him "Please take it off now. You can discuss hunting with these men, we are going home" said the wife.

"Dad I think those are bad men, they look like Yakuza" said the little boy in a fearful tone. His mother shushed him.

"Take off the suit quick! I told you they were criminals" The husband made no move, and stopped the wife from messing with his buttons. He pushed his son behind him, and gripped his pistol loosely. I could tell he didn't like the look of their eyes.

"You know about this Gantz business?" said the red headed psychic "Why did they take us? Please explain what this hunting business is about. None of us want to be involved in this." He stared at the Black man, turned back to the leading thug and said "I am Umaki Tenzo who are you? Perhaps we can help each other."

"Yes you can definitely help us. We traveled a long way to meet you and you see we are... thirsty"

"Sir these men are thieves of some sort and lying his name is not Umaki, they are liars in some game dont lump us in.." "Nya calm down and be quiet" The husband snaps, finally having enough of her bullshit. Not that it mattered.

"Not that it matters" said another man brown haired "man" in his near 30's with a black suit with flames on it and skull motif. 

"Stop playing with them, I haven't had a good fight in ages. Nothing like it before a good drink. That one on the end should be good for both" says the far left one wearing white with yellow starburst mon scrollwork, referring to Kaiza san who returns his cool stare.

The 2 minute mark counted down, all we had to do was stall them a bit more and we would be out of here. 

"Lets do it wild west style on 3" said the red headed fanged man on the end with a Katana in hand, with a small gesture a 45 magnum grew from his hand. It actually grew from his hand.

"Don't forget to use your glasses to scan for cloaks" said the blonde. "They are complete noobs. I'm counting by the way" said red hair.

The psychic said "fighting us is a mistake" and the brother looked at them and said," listen we should talk about this" 

The last vampire, one wearing Blue with a deeper blue shark motif turned to his friend "See at least 2 of them have spirit. This is what I am talking about , 1, 2," He then materializes a compact mini uzi from his fingers "3!" and all hell broke loose. 

I was still in shock at this situation. They looked like humans, but could see us when no one else could, they can turn their bodies into weapons and were implying they drink blood. 

I knew I would regret not shooting as soon as it was clear they meant to do us harm for the rest of my life. The man with the uzi put 3 bullets into Nara. Before her body hit the floor the leader had closed the distance to drop kick Kenzo 7 feet in the air before he could do anything about it.

The father seeing his wife hit the floor dropped his gun to catch her. As he did about 4 bullets bounced off him. Bullets were also bouncing off the Pantera rapper who fell on his rump dropping his rifle in surprise. The red head shot Kaiza 4 times to no effect before entering sword range. Kaiza on the other hand did not reach for his sword instead blocked red's attack at the elbow and struck him with his back. The vamp dodge most of it with a flip but his right leg took bone crushing force and he landed on the ground. 

Before Kaiza could stomp him the leader threw his sword at his torso which Kaiza dodged before entering hand to hand combat. They seemed equally matched which let me focus on the others. 

So I learned something new about the suits, they were bulletproof. I was about to finish the red head vampire whose foot was snapping back into place. Then I noticed the last vampire ran up to and stand over the little boy. He was enjoying the look of fear in his father's eyes and that did it for me. As he lifted the child with one arm and motioned as if he was going to bite him his whole lower left side was open. I picked my shot position to cover the part of his body that made a circle covering his gut, groin and left thigh. I noticed there was a sound as soon as I fired. It was similar to the one my cloak made when it powered on. 

A split second before my second trigger was depressed the blond yells "Shit we have a cloaker!" These "vamps" were fast but not enough. That and he chose to dodge to the wrong side. This vamp, the one in blue shark pattern turned into the shot while keeping hold of the child at the same height. So instead of saving his lower half he set himself up for a Darth Maul. The child was tossed to the floor in pain as shark man split in two just below the navel. The child who probably had a broken bone from how roughly he was grabbed yelled "daddy!" in agony.

The father snapped out his fugue beside his wife’s corpse and entered a rage. His pistol was in his hand again and he was shooting at everything not wearing a Gantz suit. The first to get it was the half of a vampire in blue who was still moving. His chest exploded covering him and his son in gore. He then sent a few ‘rounds’ in blondie's direction. Both he and Kaiza were able to dodge them. 

By this time Pantera had gotten off his duff and took aim at White suit. His aim was shitty but at least he was still rational enough to mind friendly fire. The psychic had landed in the dirt and was seemly torn between fleeing and joining in. Then he started translating, so at least that much info was true. I was visible at this point and trying to keep Red hair from flanking Kaiza. If he went down everyone in that group was dead. 

I myself seriously contemplated bugging out. The look blondie gave me promised retribution and all I would have to do is stay away from them long enough to translate. However, it seemed we had the edge. If blondie was able to see us on missions he was going to be a problem later on, so it was better to remove him now. His guns couldn't hurt us but ours could hurt him. Also between Kaiza and two guns we should have been able to finish them. 

Having made my choice I decided the best bet would be to snatch the kid and remove him as a leverage for the "vamps" I switched to my pistol and ramped full throttle towards the battle. 

Those vampires were not a joke. 

At this point the universe reminded me of one of the maxims of combat. “a battle was a situation where two commanders each thought they had a decisive superiority and one was wrong”.

"Looks like he fell for it, I owe you 6 dollars" said the white suited vampire as he raised his pistol and aimed at the kid, the pantera brotha opened up on him with his rifle but only tagged his boot. I tried to aim at him with my pistol but speeding and shooting accurately without hitting a friendly was beyond me. I made him dodge though. I was about 50 meters from the kid, honestly if what they said was true a few broken bones wouldn’t much matter, when a medium sized hole exploded from his forehead. 

At this the boys father went bezerk and started shooting at the red head, unfortunately the Pantera brotha was now behind him with predictable results. He collapsed on the ground like he'd been poleaxed and dropped his weapon. There was blue fluid coming from his suit, however he wasn’t dead. 

The father was shocked, he didn't meant to hit the man trying to save his son's life. "Im sorry" he said, moving toward the fallen man, his weapon half lowered. That was all the White suited vamp needed to disarm him and do some fancy move that left his arms under the fathers neck. The next thing I knew his suit was leaking blue and White suit was burying his fangs in his neck. The Pantera was still in the fight though, he reached for his pistol to cap the man feeding on our compatriot. This was when red head shot him twice in the back. 

I wasn't going to hit shit driving how I was so I slowed down and turned while 20 meters from the action. Before I could complete the maneuver to either take some supporting shots or run like hell the battle shifted again.

Red hed landed a kick on Kaiza (who was distracted fighting blondie) that dropped his shield, send him 20 feet away and left his suit leaking fluid.

White suit stood facing me daring me to shoot, while the father's blood dripping down his chin. “Ok shin makes sure you get all of this on camera so we can review it later. I love eating noobs". 

Blondie turned to face me while waking toward the brother on the floor who was still twitching. "Don't you want to save him? Can’t do it from over there." His friend turned the camera toward me. Shit if they get my id they can track me anywhere were the only thoughts going through my mind.

"We promise it wont hurt much" (they started laughing).

Then Blondie said "fuck! again jump!". Then Izumi's blade moved like lighting. Red head lost his left foot and right hand, the one holding the camera. I made sure to hit the camera once it landed on the floor.

Blondie turned to me "You think I need a photo to find a black man with blue eyes in Japan?". I didn't answer as there was no reason to let him know what my voice sounded like as well. He turned to block Izumi's sword with his own, "unlike these two fuck heads I wear my contacts and keep my head on a swivel old friend". Izumi's cloak ended and he engaged him full on. I turned my gun on the white suited vampire to keep him from flanking. At this point Saiza got up to rejoin the fight but stopped midway, displaying the strip teleportation effect. Good if we translated we could live long enough to find these fucks when we had the advantage!

Izumi, having less intelligence discipline (or likely just that arrogant) decided to speak. "Old friend? I don't know you dead man". The vamp did a fancy spin that knocked Izumi’s sword to the left.

"I'm afraid we've met before". Then Izumi blocked a thrust and in the same movement bisected the red vampire.

"Again I find that hard to believe, as you are still alive". As they dueled I was picking my shots. My first was aimed just below where white suit would land. I got a small piece of his thigh and that kept him from jumping Izumi despite having injuries that would have killed or at least incapacitated human soldiers twice over.

Somewhere in between sword clash 9 and 10 the Pantera brotha translated. I couldn't spare a look at my controller but I knew for a fact we almost all gone by then.

Damn, I owed this fucker now and the worst part was I got the feeling we needed his skills more than ever. I switched targets to blondie and he gave me a nasty smile before materializing a knife and tossing it straight at my chest.

One minute I was in my chair the next I was in the grass. I heard 12 more clashes and felt a large welt in my solar plexus. I got up and noticed the sounds of battle were gone and blue fluid was leaking from my suit. Izumi was frozen in place, but neither vamp made a move to cut the parts of him that hadn't left yet. That could only mean a 1 thing, once the process started nothing you did to the body mattered.

The vamps turned in my direction. I knew from watching Kei you could plug the controller in the bike so that's what I did. Looks like I was the only one still living on this side of the park and only 3 more people were still here. I turned to the vamps and stared blondie in the eye (he wasn't going to forget me anyway) and made a L shape with my middle finger and thumb and drew my thumb across my throat. The vamp in white materialized another weapon. I activated the cloak as I sped away. I did catch 2 bullets before I left their range, one in the arm and another in the opposite shoulder. However I learned 2 things. Gantz bikes are bulletproof at least against handguns and vamps are not faster than a Gantz bike.

I wont lie, getting shot hurt but I had only travelled for about 29 seconds bore the beam got me.

I came back to awareness in the Gantz room to the sounds of arguments. I also received a hand up and then a punch to my stomach, courtesy of our favorite team psycho Izumi. "Congratulations on surviving. I told you to stay away from my kills. Consider that a friendly reminder".

"Next time I'll just let them gang up on you ass whipe!” came out of my mouth before I could rethink my words and tone.

"I don't need help. Not from you or anyone else. Also don't expect help from me either. Those who can’t survive on their own should not."

I was on my feet with three punches and a sweep in two seconds. All which he blocked and jumped over. I then blocked a backhand, turned aside an axe kick and delivered a fade punch to his jaw. That was the end of the fight because he landed a three piece and I hit the wall.

"He pulled his extended blade. "Enough! Or do you want to finish this?" I got up deliberately slowly. My suit was still good and my pistol and sword were still attached to their holsters. I kept my hands clear of them and my lips curled upward. Yes Izumi likely could put his blade through me before I reached them, but I was smiling because I wouldn't need to.

You see, most people including this eclectic group won’t stand up for a grown man who won’t help himself. Especially not against someone who they have reason to believe is untouchable by "normal" men like themselves. However, present yourself as someone who will help keep you alive in a struggle against someone who doesn't give a shit about anyone else and is unstable and that changes things. Further, show those same people that said a man isn't invincible and others will loose a good portion of that fear.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you" Izumi turned his head to face the X-rifle pointed at him by the small orange girl. Her hands were not wavering in the slightest. From another side were the 4 Pantera Brothers who joined her in pointing their weapons in his direction.

The others were clutching their weapons, except for Kaiza who only stared around the room like a cobra. The eyes of Rieka and 5 others were on Kurono as if waiting for orders. The small psychic was flanked by his mentor and they whispered to each other and likely were communicating with telepathy for all I knew.

Kei did nothing, but was staring at Izumi. If he wanted him dead this would be the best time to make his move. There was no where for him to dodge with the low ceiling at it was even money that even someone as skilled as Izumi could even kill anyone (likely me) before he got wasted.

"The suit can take one hit from an X pistol before it breaks, so Izumi you will have to strike down 5 targets in different directions and the gal is a better shot than me. You will need two hits to break each suit as well. She is behind you, the rappers are less than 6 feet away so at least half of their shots will hit at least one of us, and I won’t miss. I also don't think you have anyone here who likes you enough to use 100 points to bring you back".

Izumi retracted his sword and entered into a more relaxed stance. He then stared at me, smiled and relaxed. " I made my point, that’s all I have to say to any of you. I just want to get my score and go home".

I slowly walked out of the crossfire and opposite the 4 rappers. Izumi shrugged, put his weapons away in the Gantz rack and sat in a corner. The rest put their weapons down but keep them within arms distance.

The golden tooth one said "Ey man we don't shoot that badly".

"It was a joke. Thank all of you. I never insult people who are trying to save my life, unlike some others." Izumi rolled his eyes, but said nothing. "but I caught two bullets escaping those things after they killed that family and I'd rather not take any more today."

"Least you didn't get shot in the back man" I nodded. Even though I had got shot in the back, I was running away and it doesn't sound as heroic as taking bullets defending a father. "Thought you were dead like the father". "Been shot before, takes more than two to put me down".

I turned around the group of newly bickering people to see Kei who said "Don't look at me, I want to smack you one too".

Before I could ask him anything else music started

The ball lit up and Kei said "We can finish our talk later, its time to distribute points". Finally I would get to see what this point system was about.


	11. Chapter 11

Whose the Boss?

Two Angry vampires walked into their central headquarters. It was not the military headquarters they ran out of a refurbished multistory building made to look like a castle, or their favored feeding/gathering hall at Club No. This was where the economic and political leaders decided how things would go and how they, nature's chosen would shape the future of the world. In the promised future vampires would no longer have to hide in the shadows, both in the sense that the new drug they developed would allow for daylight exposure and they wouldn't need to hide their vampirism. Exactly how they were going to bring down the cost of Shade or overthrow the established governments of an entire world were beyond him. He was just the vanguard of their growing military might.

Yeah it was very ironic that their "secret white house" was in the Tokyo Federal Reserve in Chuo, Tokyo. It was a building that practically never closed in a district that had a good reason to have a multitude of different cultures and races roaming through it at all hours. There was something to be said for a supposedly secret order of vampires not having all of their major institutions in one city.

They had their intelligence headquarters in the tunnels underneath a police station for crying out loud. But aside from the audacity factor that kinda of stuff always bored Hikawa. Give him a mission, tools and a preferably competent crew and he was a happy vampire. No one of any importance had ever caught on to their existence and the word on the street was that if you even had an inclining of why there were so many disappearances you kept your mouth shut.

The brochure for new vamps, said that nano tech was hundreds of years old. Anyone with a brain could figure out that nano tech was lots harder than atom bombs, meaning it wasn't humans that did it. It helps that most of the chosen get in based on looks and fitting the "fight club" loner, narcissist mold to a tee. Hikawa understood that such people did have a purpose, namely spreading the brand and infiltrating "the cool" parts of society. They were also easy to keep in check with drugs and sex.

It also helped cutting down on questioning orders, but it was also is the reason why he was attending this meeting instead of meeting those twins at No right now. Fight, Drink, Play and these pencil pushers were cutting in on the third. If they had promoted sensible people to help him do the blood work for the cause there would be less "material and personnel" replacement costs to have pointless meetings over.

If they wanted better soldiers they should be shopping at dojo's or even the damn biker gangs and yakuza hang outs. Instead they picked up college kids and pretty boys. Hikawa had agreed with them that choosing actual soldiers was a bad idea. The so call "transhuman treachery" response was not very strong and many soldiers were still loyal to their nations. Contrary to belief the nanites in his blood did nothing about his feelings and thoughts. If he wanted to he could walk into any police station and sell out the entire operation. Of course he never really cared about humanity all that much when he was still "human". He also knew that within 30 minutes of such a suicidal attempt there were procedures that would trigger, isolating those contacted and either corrupting, blunting or eliminating the trail. Then someone like him would make sure there was no second attempt.

Those nanites their benefactors (said unknown aliens who are playing their own game) weren't cheap. They could only be manufactured at one place (even he didn't know where) and were tailor made to ensure the vampire scientists couldn't tweak or reverse engineer them on their own. Each dose was specific to a person and would only work with that body (in order to stop sneaky people turning their families, loved ones and sexual partners outside of the order's control.Their benefactors didn't want rival orders popping up).

In truth they had more nanite doses than they had valued prospective "volunteers" however that wasn't really enough to spread all over the world at the rate the bosses wanted. Some had suggested they increase the number of human wanna bees and just promote a larger percentage of those. Such a ploy had its upside, larger power base included but it also left them more vulnerable to infiltration. The humans were a bit stupid and liked to believe in cool vampire myths, but arrogance had its pitfalls and he had lost 2 ‘friends’ to such a mistake.

To a degree they were historical vampires. The nanites gave vampires control of their aging, because they replaced the tissue at a cellular level. They also could change forms to a degree. The nanites could create metal weapons and fabricate gunpowder. However, doing so required ingestion of iron and other pills afterward, which were not pleasant. They could also heal wounds pretty quickly, so broken bones were more an inconvenience, and if a limb were lost it could be re attached fairly quickly. Then there was the increase in strength, speed, and reaction time. Vampires could see in low light or even in the dark. In short a group of well trained hunters were deadlier than any human SEAL team, because they could make their own weapons on the ground, provided they were willing to eat the requisite components.

Of course there were limitations and downsides. Decapitation, complete destruction of the heart or massive trauma leading to exsanguination would still kill the strongest of them. The real downside was UV light in any concentration higher than shade was fatal. Even standing outside at dawn or dusk was dangerous. The only way around that was SHADE and that was too expensive for all but the richest or most powerful. Since he was one the four horsemen he qualified, but it galled him that some of his most effective agents could only operate in the night while pampered and spoiled fools could lounge around getting tans. I mean yes they could go with more mundane solutions; umbrellas, hundreds of layers of makeup, or masks/wraps. However, those methods were rarely subtle and tended to draw attention they did not want or in the case of the makeup could fail easily leading to disaster.

At his right, the only other survivor of the debacle Kinawa looked at him with a mixture of respect, envy, anger and fear. Kinawa had held his job for 30 years longer than him, however Hikawa had earned his title within 8 years of being "awoken". Effective, efficient and deadly was his motto and those under his banner did the order's dirty work with subtlety and brutality. Kinawa was competent most of the time, though he hadn't listened when Hikawa suggested that he wear his phase glasses or contacts.

However, Hikawa did not have authority over the underlings of the other horsemen and could only embarrass them. Such methods sometimes got them to shape up, but usually just increased the antagonism each had for the other and the corresponding competitiveness. That style of leadership suited the over bosses and while Hikawa could be more diplomatic he couldn't say he cared very much about comradery.

Those glasses were also not cheap, more so for the contacts, and were considered a part of the budget of each horseman. While "the nation" was generous with money and political influence the same could not be said for the fruits of its nano tech plant. That meant each of the 4 had to decide what was important; get more nanite doses to make more soldiers, get more equipment (glasses/contacts) or more SHADE. The plant granted by our benefactors could only produce so much at a given time. Hikawa found it odd that it was so slow and suspected that the other sectors (Intelligence and Government/Finance) were hogging resources and their benefactors wanted them lean and thirsty.

As they walked into the meeting they entered a triangular room that had circular edges. In the center was triangular table with circular edges. Each rounded "point" was held by the Absolute leader of that compartment (Defense, Government/Finance, Intelligence). To their left were the strategic leaders and to the right the tactical leaders. He and Kinawa took their seats to the left of Jinbie. He might be called an over boss or Joint Chief if this were a gang or military. As it was the three heads labeled themselves Ascended (internally he rolled his eyes whenever he thought about their level of pretension).

The supreme leader of the vampire nations of earth was chosen by their benefactors from among the elite as was called the "Crimson Anointed" (Yes that was also pretentious name in his eyes. They also operated smaller chapters in the Americas, Africa, Europe and other parts of Asia. The rest didn't really seem important). If he had to guess the al-, their benefactors wanted to do invasion on the cheap. Only the areas worth anything would be destabilized and stripped of their black suited defenders. Again Hikawa really didn't care about the details of galactic conquest, only doing the job he enjoyed and he was really good at killing those black suits.

Which is why this audit was both embarrassing and infuriating. The 4 horsemen had gone in together to squash a group of hunters before they could get experienced enough to cause problems. Their benefactors had rushed intel to their support teams and for once all 4 horsemen were available. The plan was to ambush them before they left (it was still not sure how they did so. Analysis of captured suits yielded no information) and kill enough of them to make immediate future actions against aliens impossible.

The hunters they met were pathetic and only one of them seemed to even have any fight in them. Three of them had gone down in less than 90 seconds. Then the sniper took out Plague and that damn ghost came back after half a year to kill Famine with 9 moves. That sniper was annoying but his kill was more luck than skill. If Plague and the other idiots had been wearing contacts or glasses instead of relying on him things would have gone very differently. But passing the buck wouldn't help him keep his job. If he seemed incompetent here he might just loose his position and his supply of SHADE.

He listened to the review of the after action report, cost estimates for replacing personnel and loss of equipment. Then one of the Intelligence representatives from the tactical side stood. She was a pretty Chinese woman name Lei-Lei, yes after the Capcom game vampire. For some reason most vampires only took one name and many took names of famous vampires. He dated her a few years ago and they had ended things on good terms. He was glad because she had spun things in such a way Hikawa could create an out should he prove to be intelligent.

"Is that your assessment of yesterday's battle?" Her direct opposite, Lestat (how original he thought) a well dressed man sitting among the gov/finance strategic side raised hand and was given permission to speak.

"With all due respect that battle could only be considered a debacle. 2 Horsemen killed for a housewife, a brat and a rookie hunter? Does that strike you as a valid exchange?. The fiscally sound thing to do would be a blanket demotion. Perhaps some 'new blood' might find better use for your (he turns to Jinbe) allotment. Otherwise it might be better to repurpose some of Defenses allocation to other departments."

He really didn't like Lestat. The pompous prick was the worst kind of pretentious twat. He thought we could use the police and government to kill off the hunters in their daily lives or have them apply enough pressure for the humans to do our work for us with a witch hunt. People like him never understood that the minute humans started believing in alien or monster hunters they would start believing in monsters and aliens. Then poof there goes our benefactor's need for vampires.

If vampires were ever going to be powerful on their own they needed to drag out the fight long enough to get enough numbers and powerful positions to bargain for more rights and respect from whatever overlords took over. Damn he hated politics. Kinawa looked at him, and he took charge before that idiot could sink them. He nodded at Lei-Lei, he would have to get her something, take out and probably service her (he remembered she liked whips, cherries, leashes and cat costumes). Well it was hard to see, the way she was currently dressed, but she had a shapely rear end so it wouldn't be too much of a chore.

He raised his hand to speak and started his rebuttal. People always assumed the 4 horsemen were stupid because most of them weren't taken from the same "elitist" places the rest came from and they usually never spoke 4 words when 3 would suffice. It was true some of the hunter teams were comprised of berserkers who barely understood how to use their tech, spray and pray gunmen little better than human gang bangers or were too arrogant to train thinking their speed and strength would carry them through. However, the horsemen were generally responsible for the hit and fade tactics that enforced all vamp illicit business. Marks from drug dealers to coups were carried with little evidence to show for it, idiots and fools could not do that. So the words coming from his mouth surprised few except the actual fools like Lestat.

"Let me say this clearly, the battle in the park was a disaster, (shock then anger registered) No it was worse it was a massacre. Our group entered a battlefield we assumed was filled with a number of rookies. Our mission was to crush as many as we could before they departed and reduce the hunter's response time in future endeavors.

We in fact walked into an ambush due to intelligence which our teams did not have sufficient time to vet (he had learned how to deflect while not tossing potential allies under the bus. Vampires were not whipping dogs or expendable no matter what their "benefactors" believed. He could see the ire in the eyes of the intel folks and knew most of it was directed at their "allies"). While the special camera bearing documentation from the actual fight with the hunter elite was destroyed we documented the scene before the enemies evidence destruction protocols were enacted."

"Hunter elite give me a break, you got jumped by rookies and you are " Lestat was cut off by the meeting chair "please maintain decorum. Horseman War has earned the respect his position entitles him to" (which was another rebuke as Lestat was just the cousin and boot licker of his "Ascended". Rumor has it that he licked some of her other parts, in truth Hikawa would probably be doing the same duty later on tonight, but at least Lei-Lei respected him)

"As I was saying. The battlefield does indicate rookies were present and many of the bodies were not wearing suits, you will notice that the corpses were found in groups. Their weapons as usual taken by their strange "beaming" but the signs of battle indicate a fortified position. (the wall had images projected by hidden means. Hikawa realized that one of the benefits of having advanced tech to play with is that power point presentations were so much cooler). There was evidence of organization, use of communications and prepared sniping positions and three vehicles.

the threads matching the position of the sniper display a use of terrain and stealth usually only seen on veteran hunters. For instance another veteran hunter lured the large dinoid into a charge where it was crippled using its own weight against it. The bait hunter was missed by the flipping saurian by less than 60 meters. Only an group of experts would attempt such a trick as doing so is a mark of trust and experience.

(At this heads around the room began to nod) We also have evidence of the greatest threat (A picture of Izumi's face) in the Tokyo area has resurfaced. He had not been seen for almost a year."

Lestat raises his hand this time "How does that excuse loosing 2 of your collogues in an ambush, I believe one was killed by a rookie?"

(Hikawa resists the urge to morph a gun and shoot Lestat a few times. He wouldn't kill him, but such acts would warrant stiff punishment. Also it wouldn't we worth all the iron pills he would have to eat later).

"Let me point it out for you. This sniper was present when we approached and was waiting at least 80 meters down wind of us. He did not fire until we had engaged the family. He waited until Plague was stationary and holding someone to fire. While it’s true that the father of the small meat bag fired the shot that killed plague, he would not have lived much longer without his digestion track and with the blood loss. That shot was not a lucky one, the sniper used our terror tactics against us there.

When we attempted to use the child to draw him closer, the hunter played along. We then sprung a separate trap where the older hunter engaged and killed Famine in 6 moves while fighting myself. Death was wounded by the sniping hunter, while the other hunters were beamed out of danger.

I will also note that the sniper had the sense to destroy our camera to deny us the ability to track their identities. Before you ask the picture of that older hunter is from another conflict, one where he killed over 30 of our more experienced hunters and took my left pinky. I would never forget him.

We were able to get a picture of the sniper's back and can estimate his height, further he has long black hair done in dread locks and bright blue eyes. We all agree a black man with such distinct features shouldn't be able to hide as effectively as the ghost" (At this some of the brown and black members in the room gave him sly looks. Yes they could blend in rather easily, but they were vampires not cattle humans)

Jinbe asked "How is it that he escaped without a functional suit?"

"Instead of taking additional shots the sniper made a rude gesture implying derision and that he intended to kill us before cloaking his cycle and speeding off. We chased him while firing. We each shot him once, but he showed determination and managed to keep his vehicle on the road while wounded. (which was a lie as only Hikawa could see him and Kiwara was only truly skilled with a blade, but better to make friends). We suspected he was attempting to enrage us into range of more snipers and held back."

"I see, you demonstrated sound reasoning, I believe that both of your positions should be retained, what is the will of the council?"

"Might I make a few suggestions for improvement?" I asked

"Go on the chair said"

"In my opinion further assets given to the hunters and intelligence development would prevent such tragedies from occurring again. It is fact that had we arrived any earlier we would have walked into a three way battle between 3 different factions of Saurians. This might have increased our casualties or interfered in our primary mission. I remind the council it has happened in the past due to poor communication with our esteemed allies.

I also believe we should be developing human as well as computer search parameters. Hunters such as these should not be able to vanish for years and strike when they feel like. Our benefactor clearly would benefit from a more efficient removal of our mutual enemies and increase efficiency of our organization".

Appealing to shared pride is always a good way to ingratiate oneself into the good graces of the "Ascended". They then excused the two for a few minutes while they debated. Upon their return the sly wink of Lei-Lei and a crease in Jinbei's mouth told him all was well.

The council let both of the Horsemen retain their ranks. Each of the duo also received a base 10% increase in nano tech supplies. Hikawa got 6 % more than Kiwana, but the others would have to listen to either of them if they wanted to get any of it. This meant Hikawa would likely have a say in who the new horsemen would be. Since neither of them could order the other warbands bribery with access to resources was the way to make ones voice heard among knuckle heads. On a side note, he could even get some SHADE for Chiaki. She was one of the more promising new vamps and he wanted her...in his war group.

Hikawa smiled to himself as Lei-Lei filed past him while exiting the room. He hadn't used his tongue for so long in months and he suspected tonight would require much more of it. Again not that he was complaining. He also thought about those new hunters, He had fought the Japanese one before and while he didn't seem to know him now, he certainly fought him with the same dispassionate intensity. The black man, while not as skilled seemed to want to do him in and had in fact silently promised to do just that. If possible Hikawa wanted to know who they were so he could end them both before they could set up another ambush.


	12. Chapter 12

Back at the Coral

The little ball started listing peoples pictures and weird; usually insulting nicknames with some commentary. Underneath each was a score. Each alien was worth one or more points. I guessed the bigger ones were worth more.

The ball listed the survivors

Kei Kurono (Dumb ass)  
31 Points  
Less talk more shoot  
41 to go and your done

"Fuck you too Gantz" he murmured.

Shion Izumi (Rude boy)  
12 Points  
Glad your back, Good Job  
98 to go and your done

Shion's look didn't change. "Back to scratch, I see" he murmured somewhat absentmindedly.

Yoshikazu Suzuki (Old Man)  
0 Points  
Don't grab Aliens, Kill them with guns noob

Hiroto Sakurai (Jean Grey)  
8 points  
You have guns, use them red  
92 to go and your done

"Who is Jean Grey?" he asked. Before his mentor could speak Morris said

"She is a comic book superhero. One of the X-Men. Its like manga back in the states. yo" (I noticed that the last yo was a bit forced)

"But why call me a girl's name?"

His mentor said "She is red head with telekentic powers and I think Gantz is saying your face is pretty".

“Or it thinks you’re gay” replied one of the brothers.

"Well its not funny"

One of the 4 rappers I couldn't tell who snickered and said "O the black ball got jokes, yall".

Kenzo Sakata (Pothead X)  
5 points  
Less weed, more speed  
95 to go and your done

"What? I know who Professor X is I saw the movie, it was horrible by the way. But why the Pothead remark"

"Sensei you wear shades at night, I know why you do but it’s something drug users do to hide their red eyes"

Reika Shimohira (Kei's #1 Fan)  
4 Points  
Less time with eyes on Kei, more time shooting at aliens  
96 to go and your done

At this Reika blushed. "Its not like that"  
Kei said " Stop fucking with us Gantz!"

Kouki Inaba (Slacker)  
2 Points  
More time learning how to shoot, Less time staring at Reika's tits  
98 to go and your done

"I don't know what he's talking bout". Reika rolled her eyes along with everyone else.

"That's why he couldn't hit shit, Damn you need to get you some. Don't want to get shot cuz you ass is staring at her ass" Said Morriss.

Comb said "Nah he was in love with her breasts"

"Well what's your excuse for your bad aim then" Inaba found his courage. They made a few more quips as the list rolled on.

Daizaemon Kaze (Yojimbo)  
9 points  
You know weapons exist right? You can understand Japanese?  
91 to go and your done

He turned and looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "How was I supposed to know he would hear that Kaiza san?"

Hoi Hoi (Barely there)  
0 points  
Really are you trying?

The bear whined and walked away.

Bob Morris (Fwangsta)  
2 Points  
Learn how to hold the gun right, Try the sword next time?  
98 to go and your done

"See I did as well as you did Slacker!". he paused "Hold up what's that mean?". I chirped in "Gantz dono is implying you are a industry thug and your career is a fancy front." 

Inaba finished "Like your teeth"

"Man these teeth are 24 karat Gold and the diamonds are top knotch. That ball man don't know real when he sees it. Lets see him outside and let him say that shit"

He starts walking toward the ball to do the alpha male thing.

I put my hand on his shoulder "Nope, man its not worth it you already died 1 time today. Lets not fuck with things we don't understand",

He calmed down a minute and I can tell he's glad someone gave him a way out.

Sean Lewis (Loose change)  
0 Points  
On knees with butt in air wont help you

"Oh hell no you didn't" He starts to get up as everyone else laughs at the obvious joke. 50 cent is popular in Japan and the insult saying he is a bad copy is clear. His friends look at him and he sits back down. In reality he does look like 50 cent's cover with the way his clothes are arranged. 

Nathan Rich (RRR Kelly)  
3 Points  
Getting 100 point wont get you out of jail short eyes  
97 to go and your done

At this point I and Benehime look at him. I didn't connect why he was talking as much with her and her friend. I thought he was just playing up to a prospective fan. Then again his friend seemed to put themselves in between them and send him funny looks. Now I got it. They were basically keeping an eye on the trouble maker.

I laughed but sent a warning of my own. "Relax he's just fucking with you. We all know Japan doesn't play with pedophiles, even rich people get dropped down a hole for a minimum 18 years. I also know none of you are like that those girls you were flirting with were over 19". As I did I stared cooly at their leader to ensure he got where I was going with that. 

Michael Combs (DJ clueless)  
7 Points  
Getting shot again doesn't make you talented  
93 to go and your done

He took the joke better than anyone else, considering how mild it was. "Still did better than most of you all didn't I?"

Hiroshi Okada (Scaredy Cat)  
0  
Try using the gun, not crying for mama

He didn't say anything and just walked off into the corner.

Yujiro Kato (Apron man)  
1 Point  
You got one, I'm impressed  
99 to go and your done

"Shit, least I got 1"

Toshiki Yuki (Fake Blonde)  
0 Point  
Dyeing your hair is not easier than dying here, Use the weapons

Everyone laughed, even me. 

Izumi Tatsumi (Benehime)  
19 points  
You have the right spirit, more blood more kills  
81 to go and your done

She giggled. "Bet I got more than you Senpai" She also looked at Nathan. "I can explode heads at 300 meters. That's gangsta right?" He swallowed a bit and said "Yeah your a real g"

Jerolemon Marcus (Ballz lover)  
15 Points  
Your choices in life are up to you, I don't judge  
85 to go and your done

"That's really funny Gantz Dono. Ignore him. I like base balls. I'm a pitcher in a pre college league. I'm pretty good at it."

"Yep I caught him staring at me when he thought I wasn't looking" Said Reika

"Though to be fair bet even gay men stare at you" said Benehime.

Lewis was about to join in ribbing me, but his group leader said "Least he wasn't in doggy style position begging for his life, offering them Raptors some free chocolate".

"Said I was sorry for sleeping with your sister". "You think a sorry makes up for that shit. Ima beat your ass later, better believe that b. We still homies though".

"Don't forget about your girl too, though to be fair she was kinda wild."

"You mean she gave to up to all you too?"

"Nah she offered, but I wasn't trying to be caught up that mess. Basically you bought her some Prada and she would do justa bout anything. Don't need another baby mother". Each of the others gave him the man the "why you chose to pamper that money chasing woman for?" look.

They carried on for a minute until the ball stopped glowing and the door made an unlocking sound. I guess that meant we could leave, but I wanted to get more info. I was going to suggest that we stay and speak to Kei and if possible Izumi, when Kei took matters into his own hands.

He said "Excuse me everyone I'd like to say a few things."


	13. Chapter 13

Decisions Decisions

Akira Kurono never felt much attachment to others. He loved his family, though how much of that love was based on routine, obligation and a passive fondness for their presence he could not know. His girlfriend brought him enjoyment, and sex with her was more than pleasant. She certainly didn't annoy him and if she were to vanish tomorrow he knew he wouldn't like that fact.

However, love as in a special bond between hearts; that thing always eluded him. He never understood how people could tie their emotional well being into the fate of other people. His father and mother certainly exemplified that philosophy. They were dutiful to each other for as far as Akira could tell neither had ever had an affair or spoken harsh words to one another. However they were not affectionate, not truly.

Yes they had words of encouragement or praise for him when he aced the latest test, made a game winning pass or when he got full ride scholarships to a variety of top name colleges (some of them not within the country). However, there was no warmth in those accolades. They mostly were a way to get his older brother to shape up by increasing the competitive spirit between them. Kei had taken his parents actions to mean that they loved Akira more than him. It strained their relationship to the point they barely spoke 4 words when 3 would do.

Once Akira had tried to explain that their parents were extreme examples of the "perfect child" push mentality and that they weren't trying to get rid of him. Logically if they didn't care about him they wouldn't be pushing him as hard to succeed as they were. Though Kei had grunted in agreement, Akira knew his brother was jealous of his easy success and felt that he was "stealing" their parents affection and love. Akira never really cared much for his parent's accolades. Their gifts, privileges and money yes, their emotionally empty praise no.

The sad truth was that his parents were just incapable of warmth and honest emotional comfort. They were very good at faking it, it had taken him 10 years to figure it out, but he had. They had married for convenience and social climbing reasons. Their union had helped land him and his brother in the nicest part of their canton with access to a bright future. So in Akira's mind affection and emotional connection were over rated. Kei on the other hand, while perceptive only knew that his parents were cold to him.

Kei always had such intellectual promise, but he never carried his perceptiveness to the logical conclusion. In the end he decided to be his own man and make his way in the world away from the pressure cooker of this home. He still didn't understand that in his father's eyes that was another form of success, which is why they let him go. He chose to read hate and the desire to hide an embarrassment where his father only held pragmatic form of pride. After a second attempt at explaining things he left his brother to his delusions of victimhood and martyrdom, as Akira had his own life to sort out.

He wondered if that inability to use his intelligence to close the intellectual gap was the reason Akira was "chosen" to receive "awakening" and Kei was left to stay among the kine. Supposedly the members of the nation were supposed to be the smartest, most rational members of humanity. Those who hold the highest and best ideas and personalities would be elevated and spared the iron rod that would befall the "unworthy". Their sales pitch was perfect and right out of Jonestown to be honest.

Akira had been accuse of arrogance and sociopathy by his own brother and others. All because he was disinterested in forming "deep" connections with others. He never had to work hard to get where he was, but that was not of his doing. Why should he have struggle and by what right did Kei and others judge his chosen method of social interaction.

If anything he was better adjusted than his brother. Who was making the most out of his genetic gifts. Both were tall for their age, but Akira was the star of his baseball team with a scholarship where Kei was just another face on the roster in his basketball team. Kei was a basketball player who cried about being a virgin and couldn't talk to women while everyone else on his team who wasn't religious had had at least 3 sexual partners every 4 months (and even the holy rollers weren't virgins, he'd checked). Akira on the other hand had a stable relationship with his girlfriend, his older well proportioned girlfriend who bought him things without being asked.

In terms of generosity and care Kei couldn't speak to him either. He was more selfish and self centered than most people, yet he couldn't see himself for what he was. By not helping others he didn't make himself stronger and less of a target he only isolated himself. Not taking calculated risks on other's behalf meant he did not form alliances of worth. His attitude held him from the things he wanted because he refused to follow the game and act rationally like most successful people did. Such an attitude did allow him half perception, which is better than most people who were fully blind. It helped make Kei independent and a survivor.

His memories and the records he attained showed his brother as a man who made chances for success without fear. He jumped from 3 stories to avoid death or mauling from certain out of control junior yakuza (the worst of which became Akira's later meals. For if he was going to eat people then he would choose who he ate.) Once he knew the path that offered the best chance for success or survival his brother pursued it with vigor and the intelligence he normally kept hidden behind resentment and self imposed impotence.

His bother’s choice of associates was another issue. For some reason Kei was surrounded by people who could not help him achieve his limited goals. He was a basketball player of some skill, more if he would practice and apply himself. Yet he must have gotten it in his head that ambition was worthless or evil. That must be why he chose to allow bully victims and slackers in his personal circle.

They usually were the reason he was chased by criminals and got into half the trouble he did. They were also red flags that scared away any girl Kei might have drawn. No sexy teen girl wants to be associated with otaku and obese neck beards. Again his brother did it to himself. He could have taken charge of his life and chosen the social crowd his natural talents and good looks made open for him.

Which led him to thinking of Kei's supposed "saving" grace, his compassion. This was the issue that now divided the Japanese brothers like the Mason Dixon line did for so many American siblings long ago. The order's records show that someone matching Kei's description vanished after helping some kid who no one knew save a homeless man. It appears the two kids knew each other. Later two groups of big shot vamps had asked him about who it could be and gave a general description of the alleged accomplice. Akira said he didn't know and the established cold relationship between him and his brother helped sell the lie. At least Akira hoped it did and Kato might enjoy a few more months of life with his family.

Further records tied him to a man identified as Shion Izumi, who was suspected of being a hunter. Facial recognition was not exactly 100 percent reliable and they wanted to confirm that they were friends. Akira had kept an eye on his bother's social life without him knowing and could honestly say they had not been friends. Based on his brother's past social circles someone as popular as Izumi would never associate with Kei.

The order's contacts had established that Kei was seen in the company of some guy they seriously believed was a hunter. Kei was not as of yet identified as an enemy, however Akira had noticed what happened to people around when a strike team did their thing. As all of the awoken were supposed to leave their past loyalties at the door, he could not ask them to spare Kei. However, the professionalism of their bosses was such that if Kei was not present during the attack he would likely be left alone.

Honestly, he did not feel any great attachment to his brother, but his death would be an inconvenience at least. Akira would not outright risk his life over any "human" even his brother as the beating he had received trying to help Chiaki went through his mind. The girl didn't even call him to thank him, instead choosing to spend all her time with Hikawa. Honestly, he commended her as she was showing good people sense. Horseman War would continue to shine and thus enable her to not only survive, but prosper in her new life. He had enough woman problems to deal with without adding any more. No, he was ok with not volunteering information about his brother, hopefully Kei would have enough sense to drop contact with Izumi.

He rubbed his girlfriend's shoulders and turned her over to initiate foreplay. Izumi would soon be dead and the choices of his brother would decide his own fate. No more needed to be done by him there was no more need to think complicated thoughts or make hard choices. At least for now


	14. Chapter 14

Dude Really?

"I know we all want to go home, but can you give me a few minutes to explain?" Kei went on.

There were some mumbles' but Rieka followed "Yes, there are 2 people who know what’s going on and one of them is answering questions. We should pay attention."

The Giant stood up straight and walked toward the door and stopped. No one walked by him and even Izumi didn't look like he was going to cause an issue.

"Alright some of you were listening earlier but I'm going to go through the basics before I answer any questions. I don't know everything and Izumi here has the bets picture and how you all got here. (there was some heat in his last words)." Izumi made a half smile and sat down facing Kei.

"Gantz, the big ball with the man inside there,, basically took all of us a the moment of our deaths and plopped us here. We have to hunt aliens before the timer on your clocks run out. I don't know why it picked us specifically out of all the people who die. I'm guessing you all died around the Tokyo area at the same time? (people nodded or said yes). Right, so anyone around Tokyo who dies around the same time can get picked to come here.

Now, this sick game he makes us play each time is simple. Players come here wearing whatever hey had on at the moment and you beam in. You will have a few minutes to talk and then the ball will open up. You will then get a mission briefing and some time to get in your suits and pick your weapons. After that we get sent to the mission.

1) When on mission don't leave the area marked in white or your head explodes  
2) People cant see or hear you but you can touch or hurt them.  
3) Your cell phone wont get any reception, even though it will turn on  
4) The points are given out based on who gets the kill shot, there is no point sharing

Now you see the Gantz suit. The suit is the most important thing you can get. Put it on right away. It makes you stronger and faster. It will respond to your thoughts. Each time you take a hit or a fall it gets damaged. The suit can take a good amount of damage, including bullets. When the buttons pop and start leaking blue fluid it wont work anymore. Only wear the suit with your name on it. Any other suit wont offer you any protection at all.

Look at your device (he pulls out a controller). It will have 2 color blips, the yellow are the aliens and the red are us. Don't trust the controller too much because sometimes it counts the blips wrong and it doesn't exactly tell you where the blips are. The spaces are in meters and easy to get once you get familiar with them. It can also make you or a bike its plugged into invisible. When you are invisible you can sneak up on enemies.

The xguns are simple. You press button 1 to xray vision something to see if its an alien. These things can hide as statues and a whole bunch of things"

"Even humans Kei sama" I add.

"Yes even humans Marcus (I noticed he frowned and left out any honorific). It can also lock on to a weakness in a target by double pressing it when it’s highlighted. The second trigger fires some kind of energy that blows up 2 seconds later. If you lock on to more than one target before firing it can destroy more than one thing. The rifle is just a bigger version of it with a scope that lets you snipe.

This is the Capture gun. We call it that because it fires what looks like net with 3 jets that wraps around a target and puts down spikes pinning it. The second button then beams the creature somewhere else. I don't know where. Its harder to use.

This is the extended Katana. I goes out about 30 meters and comes back under control of your mind. Its hard to use if you don't have martial arts training.

In the Other room are bikes. Don't use them if you can’t drive.

Now as for what happens next. You can go home. Usually there is no body left so no one will know you actually died except for anyone close to you. However Gantz (looks at the ball) can fuck up and make an extra copy of you. It that case you'll have to stay hidden or convince yourself to accept a twin.

There are some important things you need to know

1) You will have to keep coming back here until you earn 100 points then you can leave and be free.  
2) Never talk about Gantz to anyone or your head will explode. This includes make a scene with your weapons or suit abilities. keep your time here secret!  
3) You can take your suits and guns with you outside but when you get brought back you had better be wearing them or have them in your hand. If you don't they will stay outside for the game round and you will have to fight as you are. There are more weapons here but only 1 suit for each person. Think about that before you decide what to do.  
4) Some people only work by themselves to get their points and leave other people work in teams to survive. You have to make that choice for yourself

That's it. Now you can ask questions." I immediately raise my hand.

"Why did I figure you would be first, go ahead" Kei looks like a tire school teacher dealing with the annoying kid.

"Can you tell us about the 100 point menu Izumi here (I pointed) implied it had more than one choice when you got 100 points".

"I know you can leave here and not come back. That's it. Izumi care to answer our friend?" Izumi looked at me and gave his ‘I know more, but you aren’t worth my speaking’ smirk and said nothing.

"Well looks like we aren't getting anything out of him" Kei said. "Ok nex.."

Before he can move on "Perhaps we should make him talk" says someone "Yeah this dude is holding info we need to live man" this time I notice its Nathan Rich. A few people start fingering their weapons and Izumi drops his smirk and lets a hand fall to his side. He wasn't going to speak again, especially under threat; I knew his type. I knew I didn't want a bloodbath so I took a chance.

I yelled "Gantz Dono please display the 100 point menu!"

Everyone paused a moment from my outburst to look at the ball. At first nothing happens and people are ready to back to the stand off. Then the front of the ball changes its opacity and in both Kanji and English it displays the 100 point menu.

1\. You will be freed along with your memories erased  
2\. You will be given an extremely powerful weapon  
3\. You will be able to revive a human being from the memory

"Ask and ye shall receive" I said.

"What the fuck kind of weapons they giving out?. Gantz talk about those weapons" said Morris.

Nothing happened. He was about to poke me when short stuff stepped in between us.

"I think you have to ask nicely in Japanese"

Reika then walked to the side of the man in the machine then bowed "Gantz dono what does revive someone from the memory mean?"

At this point Izumi has lost patience "It means that anyone who has been in this room can be pulled back from the dead. So those of you who care enough to bring back a friend can waste you points on it so you can watch each other die again. I don't think its going to answer more questions because he is ass. I want to get home to my girl so make your questions good cause I'm giving you 5 minutes of answers before I leave (looks at Kaiza hard). That's the best you're getting. I suggest you let him (points at me) go first".

The others look at me. Since I already knew about the suit and weapons I want to get to the meat of the issue.

"What the fuck were those blood drinking freaks that shot me? How the hell could they see us? Why did they attack us? Did I see them grow guns and knives from their hands? The healed broken bones damn fast. What are their weaknesses?

At this a few hell yeahs and shocked ahh from those that were not there at the end could be heard.

"So no more Izumi sans or dono's? I honestly don't know what they were or their weaknesses. I think I did once."

"So you picked option 1 before then and its still coming back to you?" Said Reika

"Yep sorry. But I can tell you they didn't just see us, they came looking for us. (some people gasp). You did see them grow guns and knives from their hands and you caught one in the chest. You also saw them reset a broken leg in seconds and drink that father's blood."

"Why the fuck would you come back here?" asked Sean Lewis

Before Izumi could snap, Reika said "Is it my turn to ask a more relevant question?". Izumi looked at her and did that smirk.

"Why did Gantz choose us, most of us are not warriors?" and Suzuki added "And children have no place on the battlefield."

"To be honest I never knew or found out the answer to either of those questions. And to answer the first question is it’s none of your fucking business. My life story is my own. You are down to 2 minutes".

"I noticed we could bring outside items here, is there a size or weight limit to what we can transfer with us?" I asked before anyone could bring up any more moral or philosophical questions.

"Ahh there we go, back to smart questions. To my knowledge it has to be free standing and you have to be able to pick it up yourself. So long as that's true it ends up here with you. You can take it to the mission and back the same way. Though if its not in your hands or on you it stays where it is. No you can’t bring a motorbike, well unless you can pick it up yourself"

"How can you know that, but forget about the vampires?" Asked Kaiza. His speaking shocked a few people.

"My memory is sharper in some areas than others. That blonde vampire said he knew me from before, but his face wasn't clear to me. Any other questions that are not philosophy or personal?"

"Is there a manual we can get from Gantz or anywhere else?" Asked Inaba.

"No. Gantz answers when he feels like it or you get 100 points. He really is an asshole if the whole kidnapping people to make them fight aliens thing didn't sink in yet. Now if that's it I'd like to be going."

Kaiza stepped out of his way

"Izumi one last thing. (he paused) I think everyone should hear. Those hunters were after us because we were part of this Gantz thing. They were taking pictures so I assume they have intelligence equipment and organization. I would suggest that we contact each other using code names, wear masks when on mission, and use burn phones. You might not like to work with others but our enemies do and have more experience. We would have died if you hadn't joined in".

He snorted "You figured out flattery only works on me once, smart. The security measures to protect our identities make sense and I might consider a mask. However, this working together thing won't work. You see there are not a lot high of point targets each mission. That means anyone who wants out of here needs to get there first.

Combined strength is for fools, if you don't have the skill or smarts to make it on your own you won't. I don't remember a lot yet but betrayal is something I've seen a lot of as people get tired of lifting useless people up. Friendships don't last long in this world.

As for that fight with the vampires. Don't get me wrong I joined in because I didn't get to fight anyone worthwhile that round. You set them up for me to make my move and I did so. Honestly, You shouldn't have been hurt at all. From 90 meters away they couldn't have hit you even without the cloak. You let sentiment turn off your brain. 

Tell me did rushing in to save the child help anyone? Even if you wanted to save them you should have kept your position and forced them to chose between fighting us and worrying about taking you out. They had no weapons able to threaten you, 9mm pistols cant shoot well out of 60 meters and your suit was fresh. Think about that and take it any way you like.

As for contacting me Kei kun has my number. If anything I deem important happens I will get involved. Otherwise stay out of my way till next time".

With that he left us to discuss what we would do with the bombshells he just dropped.


	15. Chapter 15

The Chains of Command

"Oh my god, not only do we have to fight aliens we have crazy ass vampires hunting us out in the world." Inaba said.

As he said that I remembered I forgot to ask Izumi about that neck move the vampire had made against the father. He had broke his suit way to quickly and I think 3 or 4 handgun bullets weren't sufficient prior damage.

Oh well I could observe and ask a few questions later.

"I suggest we form a team with leadership roles and a training schedule. We are not ready to fight right now. I noticed some of us broke down or never fired their weapons. Overall we need to improve on our accuracy and fighting skills. Relying on Izumi to handle the tough aliens would seem a bad investment".

"And some of us didn't have the luxury of sitting in a nice safe camping position" Inaba said. There were a few nods and ayes.

"Marcus san was also kind enough to make sure you each had your suits and weapons, so some gratitude wouldn’t hurt" chirped Rieka.

"The better we could draw out the enemy for him to get all the points. You heard Izumi its everyone for themselves. Marcus isn't going to stick around or come back here like that mad man though. Once he get 100 he's gone, then what? He's just using us" said Okada.

"At least Izumi is an honest asshole" said Yuki.

"Shut up both of you! Marcus sempai took those jurasic park reject out before they ate me. It would have been an easier shot to hit a stationary target. He and Yojimbo sama rescued me from that thing. (Funny how Kaiza didn't give her a funny look when she said his nick name)

Then he went out and got that family with the bitch wife. He could have left me there, but he gave me a gun and good advice.

Though he should have taken me with him to help Kei san, I coulda nailed one of them vamps too (she looks at me slightly mad). Anyway don't talk bullshit about him, like he set you up."

I was appreciative of her support but I really hoped this gal didn't have a crush on me.

"So who were you suggesting as leader?" said Reika

"Basically the most experienced member who isn't a nietzhian ass wipe, Kei Kurano"

That's when he joined the fray, with a few choice invectives.

"I've had enough of your bullshit Marcus sempei (he said the last word with heat)."

"Why Kurono sama I don't know what you mean? Have I done something to upset you, perhaps wounding the big creature so it wouldn't crush you and setting it up for the kill? Or was it showing you the room where the motorcycles were, or maybe it was listening to your experience and helping you keep as many of our colleagues alive as possible?. Please tell me which of my EVIL actions smell like shit".


	16. Chapter 16

Dog soldiers

Hikawa looked down at the men and women working out beneath the hill at the new training grounds he had opened last week. It was a few hours outside Kyoto. There was no one forcing him to keep all his assets in Tokyo and unlike nearly all of his collogues and bosses he saw no reason to put all his eggs in one basket. Here he could put together the kinds teams that would make him a legend, well a bigger one anyway.

"Ok you maggots, You wanna ride with War, it means you earn it! For the next four months you will eat, sleep and shit your training." Chiaki yelled at the aspirants. Hikawa noticed she like to switch training from hell persona's from various Vietnam like films to the classical kung fu movies. The montages from Kill Bill were the funniest, well funny to him not to the unfortunate vampires who were undergoing her ministrations. The vampires under her supervision were operating in daylight. Unlike Chiaki and himself they were not valuable enough to warrant SHADE.

Each vampire was in a biker outfit which was basically a UV shielded suit with gloves and a helmet with an expensive UV visor. The best part of the outfits were the ones who he had chosen to give the detector visors couldn't take them off in daytime. Else they would either combust or lose various parts of their face damn near permanently. For some reason damage caused by UV exposure wouldn't rapidly and automatically heal itself. Only the oldest and strongest could regenerate burns and that usually took a long time.

Hikawa never understood why vampires wouldn't like wearing glasses or contacts that let them see their cloaked enemies. He knew seconds mattered and often determined life and death. The most popular answers he got were the variance in visual frequency was uncomfortable. I mean yea it took some getting used to, but it was better than missing one's fucking head (as Chiaki said). She really understood the type of organization he was building and how proper reasoning was important. There seemed to be some kind of resonance in the nanites that brought out the arrogance of a large portion of the vampire community.

The more arrogant ones would go on about how a true vampire could hear the heartbeat of their enemies or smell their blood in the wind. In truth such abilities could be mastered, however most vampires (himself included) either muted most of their extraordinary senses because it took many years to filter out the ambient sounds and smells around you. Some new vampires had been bed ridden or near suicidal because living downwind of a polluted swamp or high traffic area had gotten to them.

Three of the fresh blood had attempted to argue with Chiaki's training method and challenged her openly. Two of them soon had legs and arms that bent in the incorrect way. From where he was standing Hikawa knew those were only the visible injuries. Their ring leader decided that demonstration wasn't sufficient and used Chiaki's rather ingenious pocket addition to the suit model to form a katana. The former limitation of the suit was a warrior couldn't form a weapon without exposing flesh. But f you had a flared pocket no part of the vampire would be exposed provided said vampire was smart enough to do so while standing still.

Chiaki dropped her katana and made the "bring it" motion with her hand. Two seconds later the helmet was cracked and the arrogant prick was running for an open door with his hands over his face. Even if he made it there would be permanent scarring. His face would be a permanent reminder as to why Chiaki was chosen as his herald for every other fool to see. About 13 feet from the door he collapsed and his suit deflated as his body turned to ash within it. The other two would be rebels reset their bones and fell into formation without further protests. Hikawa believed he would have a few words with them anyway, nothing permanent though. Skilled warriors who could still think clearly shouldn't be wasted for one mistake in judgment.

She spun with a flair and opened her hand to reveal an eyeball which also collapsed into dust. That was part of the reason Hikawa liked her, no not in that sense he corrected his line of thinking. Chiaki was competent as well as intelligent and funny (and hot) he was glad he took her off Akira Kurono. She was simply too good to waste on an emotionally dead man like him or to get sent off to work in some office with the ugg. politicians. It wouldn't be long before Chiaki lost her fire and sense of adventure. In this environment she could reach her full potential as an independent being.

She never once asked about her friends we ate or that silly boy who tried to "rescue her". Akira was still under the delusion that he should attempt to limit himself to ascribe to human morality. That would bear some watching, but a few lingering shreds of humanity did make for better infiltrators. He was being groomed for the political office, so he was their problem and that of intelligence at least for now. Once fully turned Chiaki had taken to vampirism like a duck to water. She carried out sentence on meddling mortals and treasonous members of the order without question. No she did ask questions, which way would be the most efficient and cost effective manner of their elimination. She moved without the common arrogance he had to suffer from many of his collogues, subordinates and superiors. It made working with her a dream, yeah that was why he kept her so close.

The vampire nanites worked by replacing tissue and cells in the selected individual. No two doses of "vitia" (the pretentious name they called the stuff) were exactly the same. They had the benefit of isolating the parts of the brain that affected judgment, self expression and what humans would consider the ego. In short they made men into gods by removing the blinders most of us live under. When properly selected and groomed the process created vampires that would exemplify the best humanity could have been under a different set of circumstances.

Proper vampires didn't doubt themselves, or question their place in the universe. They knew they were apex predators. No law save those of the council bound them to anything. Vampires took what they wanted from all save each other and worked tirelessly (as sleep was a think they needed little of) for the day all would be under their grasp. Each one knew that provided they did their tasks efficiently practically nothing was beyond their ability to experience. Vamps had the best parties, the best drugs, finest women or men. They could could fight or fuck practically all day or night. There was nothing better than to be part of their world, which is why mortals all over the world were begging to be turned and willing to sell anyone and everything in their power to reach their dream. Hell, no one even had to mention the end of the world and offer false promises of salvation.

The only downside was the nanites would occasionally awaken the wrong kind of people. As he had said many times vitia didn't control or change people it rather brought out what was already there and made it stronger. The matching process was good, and selected loners, egoists or people looking to belong to a counter culture. Such people found the order a godsend and were loyal with very little brainwashing or bribery needed. The blindly patriotic, the hyper religious, those who were truly depraved beyond all rationality and worst of all the martyr were a different kettle of fish. Those had to be put down before they could make the world aware of their existence.

There were less than forty thousand vampires world wide. The wrong 50 words in the ears of someone who believed them would bring down the wrath of god on their heads. They only had enough doses of vitia for another 6 thousand to the best of his knowledge, which meant the other groups mainly political were hogging at least 9 hundred doses. Humans were weaker and slower, but they were not stupid. Vampires could survive small arms fire a lot better than humans but an assault rifle or machine pistol with the right ammo could still be deadly.

There had been rumors of some ordinary human hunters who had developed special UV ammo a few decades back. His predecessor War had dealt with them and erased the formula and its makers. Any knowledge of that conflict was blunted and erased to the point there were no urban legends about it. The order had made most of the chemicals used in that process controlled or monitored so such things would not be common. However humans were smart and it was only a matter of time before someone else got that bright idea.

He would think about the future and the ways he would help shape it more over the next few weeks. As things stood he was developing his forces well. His ideas and strategies were taking root, more slowly in some of the other hosts, but he had got the Pestilence he desired elected. The new Famine was a traditionalist, but at least she was competent and wasn't arrogant. It had cost him about 1/8 of his increase in SHADE, but it would be worth it. Proving the value of his new tactics would increase the prestige of the warrior segment as a whole. He would take Chiaki and a few of his best commanders out to dinner, meaning they would hit club No. But fist he would need to convince those two would be rebels the error of their ways that would still leave them in condition to continue training tomorrow. Oh how time flies when one loves their job!


	17. Chapter 17

The Pitt

A 32 year old woman sat in her cell. It was made to hold 2 and usually would be crammed with 3 or more but she was alone. She is one of the most respected cons in her block, if not the entire prison. If one were to describe her they would first point out her long luxurious hair, died white (not platinum blonde) and running down to her shapely posterior. It was at once a symbol of her power (smuggling that color is not easy), a sign of solidarity and a instrument of mourning for the comrades she lost. As usual it was kept bound in a braid and rapped around her waist when she worked out. Which she was doing now. One hand met her chin up bar and her head passed it 3 times, switched mid lunge and carried out the same motions. She did this 9 times before starting squats and push ups, no girly style for her. When the warm up was over she would start Jeet Kun do practice.

Anong Gun Toyotomi, allowed a moment to bask in the feeling of recyled air flowing across the sheen of sweat on her skin. Her name spoke of the three parts of her soul. Anong meant beautiful in Thai. Gun was the Korean word for strong. Toyotmi was a clan name every Japanese boy and girl who bothered to read three books in primary school recognized as one the unifiers of Japan. The first two words were from the culture of her mother Samitra Soo Park. Her father Mohero had met her on a business trip to the Philippines. She thought of her parents often and how they must be so anguished while in heaven. Not necessarily because of how her life turned out, no revenge was a tradition in all of her people's cultural norms. They would be unhappy because she was miserable and unable to fully provide them justice and reach her destiny. She had been so close.

Her misery was also caused by the loss of her only real family when her birth parents had been taken. She looked at a picture of two young asian girls in military sailor outfits. The one in the left holding the baseball bat was her, the one next to her leader and the one who took the picture was her dearest friend of all. Out of their entire second family she had cherished them more than the others. She looked at the photo of better years gone and refocused on her will to survive.

The prison within

"stone walls do not a prison make or iron bars a cage" A young goth woman said to herself. If she were honest she would admit to being afraid of her own shadow more days than not. Since that night so many years ago her life had been a series of dreams and nightmares. She would find somewhere to stay and earn a decent reputation, maybe even find comfortable neighbors. Then an alarm would trip and she had to bolt.

Her bank account was flush and she never had to worry about where she would sleep. However, sleeping in a comfortable bed and satin sheets was not the same as sleeping well and sound. She had only ever once been close to being caught by...by those things since her world fell apart the first time. It had been three hours since her personal security alarms tripped. Only 3 of her 7 finely crafted alarms, a series of electronic protocols she had established that let know how likely her cover had been blown, had gone off. Usually, she didn't move until that number was 4. 1 was when a company looked over her records a wee bit seriously, but she was good enough to beat almost all of those. 

Two alarms usually meant there was a deep but non invasive scan, the kind the Feds do when she wanted to work in certain fields. 3 usually meant a deal or business opportunity had fucked with the wrong person, usually a mob. When she saw 4 she just burned everything and ran, but that time they had been sneaky. She had believed she had the time to wrap up her business before leaving town, big mistake and almost her last one. Sasha, called Coral after the south sea snake, cursed herself, her recent laxness and the horrible day that started it all.

The first time she had dealt with those..those things it was over before she knew what had happened. They had cut through her friends in under 5 minutes. 12 heavily armed, disciplined men and women good enough to serve in any of the G4 nations were dead without firing more than 12 rounds. But that wasn't the worst part 2 of her people had landed point blank hits on their attackers. They had gotten back up, and it wasn't due to body armor. Sasha had seen the shotgun blast go through that.. thing and the blood flow. It got up and tore off Sam's head while she watched the live stream, then it stared into the briefcase camera while drinking his still flowing blood. The only reason she had survived that day was her being 20 kilometers away from that supposing friendly meeting.

The Devil Queen of the 6th Underworld of Darkness and its army had thought itself the match of any organized criminal network. They exclusively dealt on the sidelines as facilitators of mutual profit, to avoid stepping on anyone's toes. Further it operated on loyalty and with integrity. They never involved themselves with extortion, ran honest games and paid every employee fairly and didn't cheat customers. Their humility served them well, especially as an outfit with so many women in positions of power. By the time anyone had noticed they weren't so meek anymore they had enough political clout and effective muscle that removing them was more trouble that it was worth. 

Well organized and operating on 3 continents their small group carried weight in the international underworld out of proportion to its economic size. Sasha still didn't know what they had done to piss off them off, not that it was her deepest concern. Her boss gave the scatter omega code 3 days later and she hadn't seen any of her friends in over a decade. She had spent a good portion of that time looking over her shoulder. She did have a suspicion as to why these creatures had been able to find her again, what they wanted and what was really going on. She had tried to avoid them, but it would seem she would not be allowed to live in peace. So Coral would apply the tools and skills she had lived by in a different life long ago to make them aware of the gravity of their error. But, first she would survive this night.


	18. Chapter 18

Heavy weighs the crown

What the fuck were the words that came through Kurono's mind. He did not voice them but this sneaky bastard had done it again. He was setting the situation up in a way that made him out to be the good guy and made Kei out to be the unreasonable and ungrateful one. Just like he had done to Shion Izumi. Though granted Izumi was an ungrateful psychopathic asshole.

Oh he had seen that play in slow motion. Marcus had beamed in a seated position and clutching his arms. He moved his head like his world was spinning around and moved as if he was in so much pain that he could barely get up. What he had been doing was playing for sympathy and checking the position of his crew.

Of course the black men would take his side, they were foreigners and they knew he had made an effort to help them. The girl, Kei had pieced together had ridden with him and he had helped her get some points. Then he had used Izumi's attack against him to solidify his position as a leader.

That first move was risky, Izumi might have been able to kill all of them, hell he had already did that once today. Marcus figured out Izumi was a violent nutcase, but he didn't know the full extent and the risk in setting him off. Though another part of him, the more honest part, reminded him that at least Marcus had confronted Izumi in his suit and with back up.

Marcus bet that getting any hit on Izumi would break some of the fear everyone had for him and he was right. He also let someone else force the issue of getting information from Izumi and then put the focus on the Ball itself. All without insulting the ball or putting himself directly in Izumi's warpath. Kei thought Marcus had got lucky with getting Gantz to give up the list, sparking Kaiza to block the door, and finally getting Izumi to cough up some info. However bastards like him and his brother always had another trick or two up their sleeves. His mind was racing to see just what Marcus sempei was after.

"Well.. Kei dono please don't keep us waiting. Explain my wicked plans for our associates and yourself. And unless you want to fight me as well don't make any lame gay jokes about me wanting your balls".

With that some of the people around him laughed, Even Kaiza son gave a half smile.

Shit, he was doing it again. He would have to calm down and forget how pissed he was at Shion. One breath, then 3 then 4 and he was back in control. Marcus hadn't done anything particularly wrong against him. Sure that stunt with the giant stegosaur could have killed him, then again his other plans weren't much less crazy. Plan 1 had been to run under the thing's legs and either use the sword or the guns to do pretty much the same thing Marcus did. Plan 2 was to use the sword like a spear and let the creature impale itself as it ran past. Without a suit either would likely have seen him crushed to death and dead long before the reset, even had he killed the dino Kaiju.

It still galled him that Marcus hadn't asked first before taking shots that could have gotten him crushed. Marcus had gambled with his life, even though he knew Marcus' logic was sound and no one had phones. It was suspect despite the fact he had left Kei the points. Kei was under no illusions that Marcus didn't see its weak spot with the x ray function. Had he chosen the black man could have taken him, the monster and Suzuki out and no one would have been the wiser, except maybe Izumi. Kei doubted he would tell anyone or even care, after all it would keep his participation in the massacre secret. Kei was upset, but also grateful even if Marcus only helped him to get more info on Gantz (at least he was fairly open about what he wanted).

He breathed again "You almost got me crushed by that damn thing with that stunt. I told you to let me handle it. I've been on more than 4 missions and fought giant things before. Thank you for helping me but you risked your life and mine"

"You are more than welcome and ahh well, I'm sorry. I tried to get it to flip to the side a hundred meters from your positions. I'm still new to this weapon. (This is when Benehime turns to stare at him. There was a story there that he would get later) I didn't know if you had a plan and it looked to me all you were doing was taking pot shots at its eyes. When I saw you on the ground and neither Suzuki san or you shooting I couldn't be sure you were, knock out, acting or just goading the creature out of spite. So I did the best I could to set you up for the kill shot.

If I messed up whatever you and Suzuki san were planning I apologize again. I knew you ordered me to stay with the others, but It seemed wise to have some backup against that beast. And to be honest I wasn't sure if Izumi would challenge you for the points. Suzuki is just as much a rookie as myself and you don't have a suit. Izumi is.... well, no offense to you... damn good at this."

Shit, he was maneuvering the discussion his way yet again. Suzuki could easily confirm there was no pre arranged plan between them. They were just shooting at the thing's eyes trying to get away. He only came up with the blow the legs off idea as it was charging. Well he was not as good at "politics" as his brother but he wasn't stupid either. Kei would get him to spill what he wanted and then deal with it and him as needed. Marcus didn't look or act like a fucking time bomb, but neither did Izumi at first.

"Ok maybe I am over reacting, you did help me there".

"No problem adrenaline and giant dinosaurs make me a bit cranky too". There were more laughs.

"Onto the main point then. I understand the importance of teamwork and why Izumi is wrong. If we form as system everyone can get enough points to leave without killing each other. It might not be as fast as some would like, but safety is more important than speed.”

”That still doesn't explain why you think I should be leading this team".

Let him spill out the entire scheme, depending on the words he used and the way he phrased the argument Kei would understand his strategies.

Reika piped up "Well you care enough about strangers to tell us about the suits and weapons, even though we might have gotten the points you needed to stay alive. Some of us might have killed you to get the points and get rid of competition. You also lured that giant beast away from us, so it wouldn't kill us or other people. You know more about this than anyone and were able to get more points than Izumi without a suit. You knew who to trust to carry out orders and you are the best hunter here".

There were nods across the room.

"Those are good signs of leadership aren't they? Compassion, wisdom, foresight, clear headed thinking in a crisis, willingness to risk one's life to help comrades and the innocent" Marcus said.

At that point Suzuki looked at him and he felt a bit of shame. He was being hyped up to take a role because he was the best available, not because he was the best. Kei knew he wasn't a psycho like Izumi but he wasn't a selfless hero either. He didn't like the dinos killing people but he sure as hell wouldn't trade their lives for his, his friends or Tae. He had told Suzuki not to cross the white line or risk themselves to prevent the collateral damage of those fireball spitting rexes. Kei Koruno summed up what he knew and suspected and made a decision.

Hearing the way he spoke and the story of how he acted Marcus seemed like an honest if calculating person trying to get on with his life. He actively helped as many people as he could without endangering himself. Most of the ideas that kept the group alive had been his. True he had put himself at the greatest physical risk during the mission, but this wasn't a jungle where the ruler was the biggest beast no matter what people like Izumi thought. Well he wasn't a hypocrite and he didn't want this job. Whether Marcus was just looking for someone to take the blame when one of his ideas went bad, or he didn't want the hassle that came with the title Kei wouldn't play figurehead. It wasn't him and a small part of him said the others deserved better than that too.

"I have to say you are leaving out integrity, responsibility and honesty. If we are going to start picking leaders everyone should face facts and the truth. Our lives will be in the hands of our collogues and we should make informed decisions. So lets get and give straight talk about how and why we acted during this mission and choose the best leader. Is that good for everyone here?"

A round of nods and sounds of agreement were had. Inaba had somewhat of a screw face. He had been somewhat against the idea of a team because in his mind it would slow down his point collection as he would be focused on keeping each other alive.

"I'll go first. When Suzuki and I were on the bike I told him to not to avoid civilian areas if it put us at more risk. It was him who decided to ignore me and travel to a different area even though it made shooting the dino thing harder".

Suzuki "That is true, of course that dinosaur had killed many people after Izumi riled it up and failed to kill it. We ran because it shrugged off our shots. We couldn't stop it...I wasn't going to run into the white line in any event but I did my best to keep it away from others"

"Pragmatism is a good sign of leadership. Once we got there those creatures became active. They headed to the main group without anyone attacking them didn't they? (nods were seen). Nothing you could have said or done would have made that dino not kill innocent people. The best way to save them was to kill the creature as neither the police or anyone else would have been able to.

Suzuki san if you had left or died what would the creature have done in your opinion"

"I think it was angry enough to keep killing many people who couldn't see or hear it" the old man said

"So the best thing to do to save them would be preserve the people capable of stopping that thing and to kill it as soon as possible. The police and army have similar tactics when dealing with terrorists even doctors and nurses do the same in crises." Marcus said.

Many nodded along with his argument.

Fuck you, he thought. He saw where Kurono was heading and moved to cut him off. After this he would find out if he played shogi or go. But for now he would get him elected to run this group, whether he liked it or not. Kei only wanted to responsible to Tae.

Benehime piped up "So we can all be straight the choices are Kei sama, Rieka sama or Marcus sempai. Does anyone else have a suggestion?"

The somewhat darker Japanese man in the rear Kato said "Ok lets get this straight our options for leader are Kurono whose what 18, Reika who is 17 or Marcus who I'm guessing is 20. Why not someone older or a with actual life experience?"

Benehime retorted "Because unlike you they were the only ones who did shit to help keep the rest of us alive."

Most of the others grunted approval.

Suzuki said "I don't believe I could do as Marcus described, Rieka san did a good job with defense and I have seen the fire of Kurono to survive. Any of them would better than myself. I am not suited for that role, but I will assist as I can"

"For the record I am 16 and large for my age. I am not rich and not currently in school. While I will gladly provide support and good ideas outside this room I'm not sure what I can offer you as overall team leader. As for Kei, why judge him by his age? He showed more sense than anyone today in organizing our group leaders and managing resources. Kei has created on the fly plans that lead to victory despite not having his suit. With it I believe he would be as competent as that crazy guy and could cover us more effectively than myself. I mean Suzuki has explained how he was able to pick himself up after many injuries by the force of his iron will to defeat an enemy even Izumi could not.

Reika performed her tasks excellently. She was calm despite being closed in on by unknown creatures, got everyone to remain calm and get suited while she explained how the weapons worked. She deputized and placed people to maximize the crossfire against those velociraptors. In battle she kept her nerve against razor sharp teeth and saved some of your lives with quick thinking. Her points were scored mostly in close combat. On the outside she is a businesswoman who has experience managing millions of yen. She owns her own business for crying out loud and lives by herself at her age. (her emancipation and fashion/product lines have been all over various magazines). She is also a person who can finance the security and training we will need to survive."

Got you fucker, and this time you walked into it. There is a point in every go match where the pattern can shift and Kei had found it.

"We all promised honesty correct?" Everyone nodded.

"I don't think you are attempting to deceive anyone but in the rush of combat you may have mis remembered a few facts Marcus san. (Come on, Come on)"

"You mean how you showed me the basics of this game, and told me to pass on the information. I'll admit you didn't use those exact words but you were understandably in a rush (oh no that's not it and you can’t back out of this)"

"I mean how it wasn't me who found the bikes"

"To be fair I just watched Izumi walk into the room and close it behind him. I assume he just wanted the sword. Anyone who was watching him would have seen him. It wasn't anything special"

"Yet no one else did."

"Also who was it that stacked all the suits and weapons in the bikes. Using them as storage was a pretty smart idea wasn't it?"

Reika chirped in "Yes it was, and ordering us to bring all the people to them and hold a defensive position was just as brilliant Kei chan" (She really did like him, well Gantz was right about something for a change)

"And you know this because I told Marcus san my 'brilliant plan' while you and Suzuki san were changing into your Gantz suits right?"

"Well yeah" (she seemed a bit confused)

"Saiza san. What was I discussing with Marcus san while the others were changing?"

"You were explaining how the Gantz equipment worked, it limitations and what you needed to do. You told the players to hide somewhere safe."

"Did I give detailed instructions or set lieutenants?"

"No, you did not"

Reika "what were his instructions to you, that you believed came from me?"

"He told me to find a good defensive position with one side blocked by concrete or a glass building. He pointed at a few places on the map. He said I should move things to make a wall."

"To be fair she chose a good site on her own and put the snipers on the roof herself" I added

"Well I did choose the spot and the design, Inaba put himself up there and one of the guys that died joined him."

"Probably was trying to look at her boobs" Said Nathan Rich

"Least I like girls over 10" He retorted

They started back and forth until Kaiza got in between them.

After Reika and a few others looked at him in as strange way.

"I would like you to remember I never said Kei dono put me in charge. I was specific about that. I did in fact repeat his words to you all."

"No you let us believe we were following Kei's plan while you were scoring points as we got shredded by those things" the bartender said.

A few others were looking on with changing attitudes.

Kei looked at Marcus and his faced changed visibly from stoic, to mildly amused to hurt.

"What?" Marcus was getting legitimately angry. Kurono decided he wasn't faking it. To be fair so was Kei. He remembered telling Marcus he had already gotten his points. He could have killed the last boss without condemning Kei to death. Marcus had been trying to ingratiate himself with Kei, he knew that. He also knew that Marcus had gone out of his way to protect people, and that accusation was tasteless.

"Explain why he went out of his way to help me then? Why did he set me up on the roof with him to pick off those dinos?"

"Why are you still defending this foreigner" He had said that in Japanese and the word he had used was borderline insulting for black people. There were 5 in the room, 1 who spoke Japanese fluently and 4 with varying levels of comprehension. Since all of them larger than him and he had been one of the ones hiding during the attack it was a pretty stupid thing to do.

"This foreigner (she used the proper term for black American) saved my life, and I helped him save yours and you know that. (she switched to English) If all he wanted was points he could left me to walk and sniped them himself. Use your brain for something other than you ass (which would sound better in Japanese)

"Please remember I speak this language pretty well friend. I will suggest 3 other words (he named them) to use instead of that one when referring to me if my name doesn't suffice. Unless you feel brave enough to use English". Kei noted that while the 4 other Americans didn't understand what was said they understood what had happened.

This was not going the way he had intended and he needed to get it back on track.

"Yes He decided that in order to keep everyone alive they needed to be in suits and get some kind organization quickly and you did what was pragmatic to achieve it" Kei said

"He still manipulated us Kei sama. I don't see why he lied" Reika replied

"How do we know he isn't like Izumi?"

There were murmurs among the survivors.

Marcus looked at her with a funny look, so did the 4 Americans and even Kei had join in. For a supposedly international businesswoman she must have lived a fairly sheltered life.

Before Marcus could answer Suzuki provided one.

"I can fathom a guess. I am older than most of you and I have seen enough of life to know many of us judge things based on shallow estimations. Reika, you are a pop idol that almost everyone here was fawning over and both you and I acknowledge Kei san as leader. If you said to jump most would do it without question. Kei chan has more knowledge about this world than almost anyone but was too busy to provide guidance.

Marcus san saw what needed to be done and the best way to so do so without violence or threats was to provide leadership in a form Japanese people would respect. It not easy for me to say this but Black people are not seen as intelligent by some classes within this nation. With respect to you 4 the lifestyle you chose to represent is seen as a foolish curiosity by man people in my country."

"Old man (he said without rancor) You ain’t saying something we haven't heard in the states. I dig where you are going, don't sweat the truth man."

"As I was saying even though Marcus san does not represent that image, people here would question anything he said, no matter how sensible it was or how properly he chose to speak. Such delays would have cost more people their lives."

"Same shit wherever you go, A brotha passing orders is ok, but let him be in charge and people start a shit storm!"

"Well you elected President Oba" Started Benehime

"Please lil sis, (He dropped kay fabe) We both know Barrack wasn't the messiah come to change the world. He was cool and all, but the world as it is wasn't built in 30 years. Its going to take a lot more work to make it right"

"Oh finally you can speak proper English. Evil Velociraptors, Full Metal Alchemist Stegosauruses, fire breathing Tyrannosaurs and crazy celery men and its business as usual with the gangsta routine. All it took was a argument over racism and the false portrayal of cultural Identity in the media and you get woke? I mean yea I understand you are on tour selling your brand, but do you have to be "live" all day?”

"That's why you were giving us stank eye all day? I thought you just didn't like our music."

"Might be the gay jokes I heard you making while I was in the back room with our resident Norman Bates".

"Speaking of things that are fronts I know your story is one. I will remind you again we agreed to tell the truth. You don't speak like a high school drop out and 16 is a bit young to be traveling by oneself. Your Japanese is good, and not just in a I study because I like it good. You've been living in Tokyo but your accent sounds provincial. Meaning you've been here for some time and that's not cheap and as you said you are not rich. There is more to your story than you are letting on".

"So a young black man can't just decide to spend a significant amount of time in Japan to learn its ancient culture? (Everyone looked at him with a cocked eye). Fine I finished high school when I was almost 16. I have a number of full ride scholarships waiting for me in different colleges in 5 countries. No it’s not for sports, though I'm a pretty good pitcher. I am a chemistry grant winner here on cultural exchange. Basically get paid to tour the top colleges, play baseball and read manga."

"So you are genius who came to our country to have fun pretending that you will stay here. I get the feeling you just wanted to escape your family and the pressure for a while".

"Something like that, however I might find a school here I like more than Princeton"

"Back to the point, I believe I should apologize for my last statements. Your actions were reasonable for the circumstances" Reika stated

"Lets go a bit further. Who was there for the battle with the 'vampires'? Please tell us all what happened (he had only gotten a few snippets in the minutes after everyone had beamed in)."

The psychic, DJ Clueless and Kaiza explained what they saw. Marcus filled in the last parts.

"So basically you killed 2 of 4 of these guys and they murdered that family?" asked Suzuki

"That's the long and short of it" (which had a more martial meaning in japan refereeing to a set of long and short swords worn by samurai) Marcus answered

"Might I ask who sent those two to provide the suits to that family?" Kei said

"I did, however it was Marcus sama who said I should send some people over after everything was secured" (he noticed she had added the honorific again)

Ok now to go in for the kill Kei though for himself.

"Might I ask why you chose not to go yourself. From what I understand as long as you kept Benehime from the front there was nothing stopping you from seeing for yourself. I mean all the yellow dots were gone."

"Marcus sama made me realize that I was responsible for the wounded and keeping everyone together (she looks at Benehime who stuck her tongue at her). I was someone almost everyone looked up too and I couldn't just abandon them.

There was also no promise that all of the danger was gone. That map thing didn't always count properly and there was no telling what what Izumi would do. So I sent two people with working suits and who had some kills to help them. I stayed and kept things organized and everyone calm."

Marcus was looking at Kei with the deer in the headlights look. Yes Kei had figured out exactly what he had tried. His father and mother were better at this than him and had been at it longer. Sorry pal I have a girl already and don't need more work.

Time to reel this in and go home

"Kaiza would likely have won or survived a 1 on 1 until beam out. However even he did not do well when he had 2 opponents. How many of you believe you would have lasted long enough for Izumi to help without Marcus's intervention? (none answered)."

"How many of you believe Marcus was using you to get points, especially as he did not know exactly what the point menu was.?" Some might be thinking it but no one raised their hands.

"Its getting late and everyone has places they want to be, I think we have heard enough to make a vote for leadership. We can meet later to make more plans."

"I would like to add that while Kei has honored me greatly with his endorsement I should point out that the field leader should be physically courageous, highly skilled and successful"

He flashed a gotcha sucker smile.

"Which would fit you as well as my self Marcus sama. You risked your life spending time in a closet with Izumi, who is more dangerous than you know just to get information you shared with all of us. Some of that information I myself did not know. You also fought that giant creature, faced down a leaping raptor and went 1 on 1 with Izumi." said Kei

"He even landed a hit on that ass. Speaking which what is your problem with Izumi" asked Reika.

Kei thought about it. Telling them would mean war and its likely that in open terrain Izumi would kill them. It seemed like Izumi didn't care about any of them provided they stayed away from him, so he would tell just enough truth here.

"Izumi and his attitude are responsible for the deaths of former team mates. He can only be trusted to do what he wants and what's good for him. I attacked him because his actions endangered someone I cared about. Its a personal matter that doesn't involve any of you so don't get involved. The man in dangerous".

"So vote time?" Benehime quipped


	19. Chapter 19

Hard Choices

A tie. I didn't fucking believe this shit. Most Japanese kids would kill to be in a male protag role with a hot model literally three hours of small talk (if that much) from unzipping their fly. I knew this kid had no fear whatsoever of giant death dealing things. He hadn't just told me, he had showed me by charging the damn thing at break neck speed without a suit, trusting an inexperienced driver to ferry him around on that deathtrap of a motorcycle.

It wasn't even like he had to run things by himself, it was obvious that I, Rieka, Suzuki and Kaiza would help out. Getting the psychics on board wouldn't take too much pressure. The others would fall in line and worst should come to worse Izumi couldn't dodge or kill more than 2 of us in this room. That threat alone should keep him from acting out his psycho delusions of supremacy on us. Let him go fight the high point aliens and get himself killed.

No there was some emotional or psychological block keeping him from voting for himself. And it had to be him, there were not enough votes to choose Rieka, and that surprised me. Inaba wanted to get in her panties so his vote was a given, but she wasn't giving him the time of day. A few of the others were still fawning over her, especially due to her strong leadership during the attack on fort Kei. How Kurono didn't figure out she wanted to jump his bones was beyond me.

A blind man could pick up on the attraction 5 minutes after he showed up. I mean she didn't have the best rear end but she obviously took care of her legs and her breasts looked like a plastic surgeon's magnum opus. Yes Reika would get it today, if she were interested in me; getting to know her in a non biblical sense could wait. Alas, for some reason if we were operating on Anime logic she would enter and maintain Yandere mode soon. However, I could work with that to everyone's, especially my advantage.

She had withdrawn after the fourth vote, the one where everyone who wasn't one of us three stopped trying to get themselves elected leader. We had decided to do it he the American way. The leader would need to get fifty percent plus 1 majority. She had come close the second time. Though apparently I was still more favored that her to some of the Japanese. I was surprised the bartender voted for me. Though after the round 3 some people actually abstained, which was a pain because it meant we needed to have another vote instead of ending it there.

So here we were in a tie. For some reason the older psychic had abstained from voting for the last two casts. Saiza had also refused to vote in the last round. The method was simple, we had a few minutes to present an argument, people raised objections and then a show of hands. Only now it had basically come to the strangest "election" in history. Two people arguing over why the other guy should be in charge. It would be funny if so many people weren't getting frustrated or the stakes were not so high.

My block basically came down to Benehime and the gangsta elite. Kei's unwanted supporters were Reika, Suzuki, Inaba and the bartender. The others had changed their votes over the last two turns. The two mentalists voted together, with the young one following the older one's lead. Kaiza was Kaiza, no one could really claim to understand how his mind worked, but his vote had caused 2 ties earlier none the less.

"Ok guys this is getting silly" I said with exasperation.

"If you would just take the job we could move on to other matters and go home!" said Kai

which was followed by Benehime stepping on my toe (smoothly enough to not be noticed), not hard but enough to demonstrate the yandere potential of young teen Japanese girls who were getting hungry.

"Perhaps if you would each just honestly say why you don't want the job we could come to a decision. It is getting late; some of us have others who depend on us, while you youngsters should be heading home to your families". Said the old man

Shit this would be a tough one. I don't know his home situation but I knew I had actually had more free time than either Rieka or Kei. I didn't actually have to work or maintain a presence, but I didn't not want to be point man.

"I don't live at home and I work to take care of myself. That eats up a lot of my time and energy. Look honestly I just want to survive this game and spend time with my girlfriend" said Kuruno. Then everyone looked at me.

"I am not charging in head first against those things. I'm not confident that my close range fighting skills are enough to save any of you".

Which is where Kaiza stepped in. "Is that why you charged down the hill during the fight instead of continuing to provide covering fire?"

"I came down because I couldn't take another shot like the one that hit the vampire. I almost took that kids legs off. He was basically their hostage and they were playing with him as bait".

"So instead of applying pressure to another enemy and hoping one of us would save the child you gave up your position?"

I stopped and slapped myself in the head.

"I forgot to measure my opponent and weight him against my abilities. I saw a momentary advantage and fell into their trap thinking I could get the child out of danger better than a close in fighting expert like yourself Kaiza san. If I had stayed where I was we might have killed all of them and that family might be alive."

That probably meant Kei had won.

"Many things are possible. If you had brought Benehime its possible she would have been enough to kill them or drive them off without Izumi. Its also possible that either of you could have killed one of us from that distance by accident. Its also possible that Izumi might have not decided to get involved and we would have died.

You understand why your rush was a tactical error. You also stopped your rush when you saw they were playing with us and switched to a new tactic in order to help us, instead of running away. You did this without hesitation. (he said that looking at the older Mentalist who held his gaze). I don't question your choice to no bring Benehime, she has skill but she still lacks patience. The tasks you handled required precision and timing.

The fact you understand why your actions could be improved does not invalidate you as a leader. (Damn he saw through my ploy) Also I can fight much better than many. That doesn't make me the best choice as team leader".

"So who do you think should lead, I'm tired and hungry. So are most of us" Said Benehime

"We should choose Marcus Sama to run strategy and work out training, identity protection and tactics with Rieka sama and Kei sama"

Kei relaxed

"Kei should be in charge of things when in the mission as Marcus sama is still raw"

"I believe those thoughts align with my own" said Suzuki

"Can we vote on this now. All agreed" Said the Bartender

"Hold on said Kei"

Every hand raised except mine and Kei's.

I bowed my head.

"Fine anyone got paper (the Gal opened her bag) write your phone number down. I will call each of you from a burn phone. You will each create a new email address from a public computer that is no closer to you than 3 miles. I will call you to set up a meet" I stopped and looked at Kurono

"How much time do we have between these things?"

"Usually about 5 or 6 days, sometimes 2 weeks"

"Ok I'll call you all in the next 2 days and we can meet in Tokyo park. Everyone think of a good codename. Also buy a ski mask and keep it on you at all time"

"I suggest you leave your suit here, unless you are going to wear it all the time, or keep it next to you. When Gantz calls you don't have time to go looking for it. Those vamps might find you, but the aliens will find you". Kei added.

Everyone left their suit in the boxes with their names in them except Kei.

"Alright who ever has cab fare might consider helping out those who don't. I'm going to grab some food before I head home." Benehime moves to follow me.

"I suggest you head home with Rieka, it will be less of headache for your parents. Is that ok with you?" She nods and everyone files out of the Gantz room.

I stop Kei Kurano a few blocks outside before he can hail a cab. "Why didn't you want the job really? Also I think Rieka wants a piece of you"

"Are you going to have fun planning security and training for everyone? And would you cheat on your girlfriend just because some hot girl flirts wit you. Mr. Yasuke?"

"heh, you are helping with training, your the one with the experience ,unless you forgot. And no you are right, sex brings a few minutes of pleasure, a broken relationship can bring pain that lingers a lot longer. And how did you know my nick name?”

"You played for the Rockets. I knew I had seen you before. To be honest there aren't too many 16 year old black men who play pre college games."

"Thank you for not naming me in the room, that damn ball is fucking rude"

"You could have fooled me with how far your lips were up his ass" I was getting ready to say something when he smiled.

"A joke, you got him to give up more information in 6 minutes than I could in the last 3 missions. Also a word of advice bring your suit out next time, because I don't trust Izumi"

"Is that because he had something to do with the mass shooting?" Kei's face dropped.

"How did you piece that together?"

"The look he gave me told he didn't see much difference between the value of our lives and those aliens things. Also you came charging at him without a suit like he did something to your girlfriend (his face reacts again). Ahh that too I see."

"Don't tell anyone, not even Rieka. But he was the school shooter. He did it to come back to play Glantz. He likes this life. If you tell the others, they will attack and get killed."

"So why don’t we just set him up and take him out? He has to take off the suit sometime right?"

"Have you ever killed a real person? (I shake my head). Thought so. He just got his memories back and he's a beast now; so think about how many of us would die before him. Look we can train and be ready if he moves on us, but we might also need him to clear out some missions. How many of us will die without his skill backing us up?"

"I take it he doesn't care enough about us to do more damage. So long as we stay out his point sand castle, that is. Let him face the heavy level monsters and do the dirty work. Either he gets killed or he chooses to leave the world and isn't our problem anymore. Makes sense to you?" I said.

A katana then rested a foot behind me, driving itself into the ground a few inches. Holding it was Shion Izumi. "There's also the fact he mastered the cloak before both of you and he could be behind you right now! Yasuke, I knew I remembered being at one your games. You've got a good arm. Don't do anything stupid and it can remain attached to the rest of you".

"Why am I not surprised." said Kei

"Heh, I trust you are smart enough to avoid the police"

"Yeah head, boom. I want to live and you didn't hurt anyone I knew before the room. Just don't hurt any of us and I won’t go after you. Personally, I have enough issues with the vamps and aliens."

"Fair enough, This is my world don't mess it up for me and I don't care what you do. Live or die, but stay the fuck out of my way" Then he vanished.

"That motherfucker is crazy!" I heard myself say a few moments later.

"You don't say?"


	20. Chapter 20

Nothing to it

"Look we know for a fact you are still here girl! (The well dressed young man said in a sing song voice. His brown skin tone and accent marking him as Trinidadian or Bajan) We can do this quick and go home."

In response the air conditioning and radios went on while the lights went out.

"Or you can make us find you, and we can take our time." said his subordinate a slightly younger white man with an American, possibly Texan accent.

The two were in fact followed by 4 other men and 2 women. All of them wore black leisure suits and would easily have fit the 'men in black' logo to tee. They fanned out while brandishing a variety of blades, mostly of Asian motif, and 9mm hand guns. The store they were searching was basically a skeleton floor under construction in a 3 story strip mall set up. They had already laid down all the fixtures and were about 3 weeks from moving in residents. Sasha hoped the new owners would forgive the mess, if not out of principles of human kindness then from the twelve grand she left in an account in their business name.

"Be serious Grant, you're going to play with her before you drink her anyway" said the white man who was wearing shades as some of the others were.

"Mark, don't act holier than though, I know you want a taste of her too. I don't mind sharing how bout you Slim" said the bald brown man as he licked his lips.

"Don't look at me I had had Thai yesterday, I'm really in the mood for Mexican" said the tall brunette woman covering the rear with a Uzi, she had materialized out of her hand.

"What I don't get is why we need to wear these for ordinary kine. This loose end isn't a hunter and she's not working with them either!" said a vamp in the rear.

"Look, you just joined so I'll give you some free advice. Don't question the horsemen and this lil snake isn't one to play with. She's been dodging us for years. Hear that lil snake we've been on your tail and we'll skin all of you. We're the real demons in the night!"

They then closed in from different angles while Slim said "Yep once we skin you were heading to your old stomping grounds to teach the white ghost how a woman's prison movie’s supposed to go!"

Suddenly the PA system also went off "I'm afraid none of you Jian shi will be surviving today". Then the sprinklers went off.

"You heard her, stupid bitch thinks she can muffle her voice with some radio and machines while she sneaks away. It came from over there come on lets end this" The 8 then closed in on the room the voice came from.

"You had you chance for easy, now we'll have some fun". They opened the door to find a top quality machine playing recording of a heartbeat and whimpering.

Their leader looked at the puddle he and his forces were standing in and noticed the wire too late to call out a warning. These creatures were fast however they were not faster than electricity. The 8 people above had just received enough electricity to kill 12 elephants. That trap had not been cheap, but it was worth it.

The two vampires who were left to watch the van were not the brightest of the hit squad, which is why they were given their post she supposed. After she had turned up the volume she had slid down the escape hatch leading down to the first floor. After picking up her silenced Saiga 12 she made her way to their van.

Had they installed a rear camera or been more watchful the two 'men' might have noticed her walking up to their door. They could dodge a person's arm movements and had excellent healing but how does one dodge automatic shotgun rounds from a seated position.

"Hello vampire san. Good bye Vampire san" Sasha emptied her clip at head height. They wouldn't be coming back from that. She reloaded her piece as she swiftly walked back into the building. She carefully put a round in the head of each vampire, surprisingly enough their leader had survived. Of course he was on the ground barely moving. He pointed his hand at her and nothing happened. "looks like your powers don't work after a shock, sucks to be you huh?" She then hit him in his family jewels with the shotgun and broke his right knee and both hands with 3 cruel and accurate stomps from her heavy work boots.

After ensuring the other were dead she walked over to Mark. "So it appears I will be having fun. (she pulled out a wicked looking knife). You know who I am and who I was. The police will be here in about 12 minutes which means I have 5 minutes before I must leave. Answer quickly and die painlessly."

She got her answers then stripped the dead of their Id's, phones, sunglasses and funds. In the van she found a laptop and weird looking isbs. She didn't rob them because that she needed the money, It was the principle of the thing. She would use their id's to provide their money to homeless and a variety of charities. That action would also serve as a false paper trail.

Since they were determined to hunt her regardless of what she did she would return to the world of demons. With or without their queen the Demons of the 6th underworld would have their due. It was time to go back to where it all began.

Light at the end of the tunnel

"Package for you ghost!" Came the mellow voice of 60 year old Korean woman. Her knarled hands passed the unopened parcel to her boss.

The powerfully built 5.9 inch woman with striking platinum hair picked the 9 inch by 7 inch box.

While it had been run through the metal detectors and opened the fact that they resealed it without damaging the festive wrapping bespoke the respect she had earned. 

The wrapping was gold leaf with a distinct pattern of mon resembling a crane within a pond. Anong copied her jailors and removed the package without tearing the paper. It was pretty and expensive enough to be a gift in and of itself and if its sender was who she thought it was, well it was a precious gift beyond measure.

The box was Tiffany and pure white on its lid was her namesake a blond wraith holding a scythe. She made note of the 8 notches upon the blade. Upon removing the top she noted a white card, completely blank and a tablet. The tablet is covered with intricate scrollwork, with nested symbols. Symbols that describe a history only Anong or the senior members of her family would understand. Near the center of the rear of the device is the symbols create an optical trick displaying the demon noh mask.

"Su Yin, please excuse me I wish to commiserate with the Gods for this gift". Her long time luitanant understood her mood and left without another word. Placing a hand on her own before exiting the cell. Su Yin was in prison for shoplifting in order to pay for her medical bills. She didn't want to burden her family, as they had multiple relatives to support. Yin had, gotten in they way of four inmates attempt to abuse a younger prisoner. The fact she had done so and defeated one of them prior to her involvement led her to take the older woman under her care. In the years since they had brought a degree of integrity and pride to their block that even the Warden appreciated.

Remembering protocols she had not used in years Anong turned on her new device and entered the code the patterns on the wrapping paper and rear indicated. Once the device booted she opened a program marked Felicity and placed the blank card on top. The wavelengths of light strobed and revealed the message within.

"Dear Sister, it has been so long that we have seen each other that I feel as much a ghost as you. I have not contacted you before because I was both ashamed of my survival and afraid to lose you. The time for that weakness however, has passed. The false yokai that have taken from us are no longer content to allow us to wither away on our own. Thus if we are to enter the world of ghosts, let us show them meifumadō. Please join your unworthy sister once more".

Anong had tears streaming down her face as she took both the note and the box and paper tore them into pieces and placed them within her waste bucket. She had forgiven her years ago, the fact she though survival was something to regret, was something she would disabuse her of later. They were swiftly followed by a match. She then wiped her face, placed headphones in her device and used the device to learn about her foes, and the plan her sister had to finally avenge themselves.

Soon the Yomi no Majin Kougou would rise again!**

* Path to hell (From lone wolf and cub implying path of vengeance)  
**Devil Queens of the Underworld.


	21. Chapter 21

My new and relatively spacious apartment one week after dino mission

"One, Two" I yelled as I hit my stand alone punching back with a left right combo. I had decided to change up everything. I stopped wearing the blue contact lenses I had been wearing for the last 6 months as a fad. I also undid my braids and cut most of my hair. I still looked a bit ostentatious with relaxed hair, but really blending in wasn't a option, even in Tokyo. At least now I stand out as completely different person. Assuming the vamps or aliens, since if both can apparently track us to some degree, did their homework this should buy me some time to work out a way to cripple or end them first. I realized right away that it had to be one or the other. Worse, after I after I spoke with Kei we agreed was likely they had human helpers as well. Because really, what conspiracy this big doesn't have human lackeys.

Which meant at some point I'd have to kill ordinary humans working against us. Hell, Kurono explained Izumi wasn't even the worst of the Gantz players and some had tried to kill him before. Some kid Nisshi had shot a few of us for threatening him. So not only did we have to deal with vampires and aliens out to get us; we had to watch our own team mates. In addition we didn't even know if we were on the right side. Oh, Kei explained how some aliens had murdered folks in his class for "revenge" and I don't doubt lots of people have been killed mysteriously in way that don't make the news. However, how did we know our faction was any better than them? A real government force wouldn't use civilians and criminals, it was stupid not to use professional special forces for this job. At the same time this group was too well funded to not be tied to the government in some way. All we could put together is that we wanted to live and would keep fighting to make that happen.

I continued my assault on my imaginary opponent while reviewing my recent history. I had stopped playing baseball almost right away. There was an old saying "when I became a man I put away childish things". Well I had killed 1 human like sentient thing, helped to kill some other sentient like things and would be leading some kind of low budget Halliburton combination INS/Gestapo so I guessed that made me a man. I then got myself 2 part time jobs working in both a minor laboratory and a mid tier college. Both of those jobs were chosen for 3 reasons, allowed me access to chemicals and recent developments, they were nearby and they were not too demanding on my time. The fact that doing so triggered a number of benefits due to the conditions of my exchange visa was not lost. One of such was an increase in my stipend (along with a the salary) and housing options. Honestly, I really didn't immediately need the money to upgrade my living space but lets just say not all of my income was exactly...legal.

See a when I got here I had sorta been able to crack the formula for a few low budget drinks well enough to fool most people. A few high schoolers had got it into their head to sell them and had helped a few kids hustle them under their own name. I learned back in the states not to copy any large name brands because they will crack down on you; especially if you try to counterfeit their name as well. We made the stuff with clean equipment in one of their parent's homes, apparently there were well off chemistry buffs too (who knew). For about 3 months we raked in cash, as our drinks tasted better than the competition. Well it was too good to last and the fake junior grade Yakuza wanted a part of it. They wanted to go "big time" and actually use the brand name to sell the stuff in stores or off trucks. At that point I convinced the kids I worked with to just cash out and I 'gave' the formula to them for as low a price as could still be 'respectful'.

They had actually wanted me to stay on with them. However, I knew that they were not shall we say committed to providing safe, quality control and would likely substitute cheaper ingredients. About 3 months later they had altered the formula and some people had got sick. There were trials later. I know their bosses kept my name out of it because they figured I could be useful later and I had offered a clear warning about doing business in that way. Coincidently I was offered a new residence in Tokyo a few months after the sacrificial gang members entered plea deals, meaning the cops knew exactly what happened and that my original formula was safe, but I should stick to legitimate income from hence forward.

Well now I was back to doing what I loved best, when not training with the Gantz folks. Nippon Golden Bloom Technical institute was doing a number of things, but I decided to work with their rice fertilizer project. My thing was organic chemistry. In particular I wanted to help end world hunger by creating simple and cost effective custom fertilizers for staple crops. You didn't get more staple than rice, outside of wheat and barely. My other job was at Obashi Pharmaceutical's cosmetics. The division they placed me in was developing a line of long lasting high gloss eye shadow. It was meant to compliment their own lipstick and rouge products. It would shock you how many plant and animal components go into those things. My "off the books" actions, commitment to safety and loyalty to my past employers had paid off as my new employers valued my ability to identify the secrets of their competitors and duplicate them in way they couldn't sue over.

I still found time to practice my pitching at the university training yard. It was one of the benefits working there provided me. Believing I was practicing to keep my skills sharp in anticipation for the day my Gantz nightmare would be over was one of the things keeping me sane. That and I was able to occasionally keep in touch with my old teammates, but I was deliberately phasing them out of my life. Doing so would be safer for everyone involved, but I couldn't bring myself to just cut them off abruptly. First, it would probably draw more suspicion and secondly they mostly good people who didn't deserve it.

4 weeks later 

I was eating a nice meal of Teryaki Shrimp with Nabu, his date, and a few others when I heard the damn workout music. I knew our break was too good to be true and had to come to an end. After making some quick excuses I ran out the back and into an alley. Fortunately for me I kept my suit in my backpack and it never left my side. Carrying my helmet with me was strange, as I didn't own a motorcycle but I really didn't have to answer anyone's questions. As soon as our next mission began I could leave it in the Gantz room anyway.

No sooner had I made it into the alley than I found myself translating. Which was just as well because I knew Nobu was almost right behind me. Damn, I'd have to explain how I pulled that one off, but he didn't see me and my head didn't explode. I was sure I could think of something that wouldn't cause him to worry, hence follow me around in suspicion.


End file.
